


Parallel Lines

by say_das_name



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: And violence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I swear the writing gets better, I want to add fluff, Jisung is a transfer student, M/M, Minho is an outcast and is bullied, Minor Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin, Minor Hwang Hyunjin/Yang Jeongin | I.N, Shy Lee Minho | Lee Know, Stray Kids OT8, Sweet Han Jisung | Han, Tagging as I go, and stronger themes, changed rating because of langauge, possible OC to fill a certain character spot, theres angst, theres cute moments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:08:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26316202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/say_das_name/pseuds/say_das_name
Summary: Upon arriving at the prestigious JYP Academy, Jisung is faced with quit a peculiar situation - he finds a boy asleep in his locker and doesn't know the first thing to do about it. Days later Jisung can't stop thinking about the boy and all of a sudden their lives start entwining more and more.Hidden truths are revealed and their complex friendship is tested
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 42
Kudos: 67





	1. Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like my attempt at a high school au! I'm moving this series from Wattpad to AO3 so if you see the same story on Wattpad it's me. Also this version is slightly rewritten apposed to the original that's on WP, I wanted this one to be better so yeahhh,, thanks for checking it out.
> 
> I'm working on going over the published chapters and cleaning them up a bit

"Welcome to JYP Academy, we're so happy you've decided to attend," said a bald man in a suit. He continued, "perfect marks from your last school! Yes, this school could use someone like you," the man continued, too engrossed in the report card he held in his hands to notice the discomfort on the boy's face.

"Uh, thank you - sir," the boy added, unsure of how to perceive this situation.

"I'm curious, what made you transfer?" 

The boy rubbed the back of his neck unsure of what to say. "Well, you see, I-" he started.

"He just needed a different environment to grow in," the boy's mom said pretentiously. The son shot her an irritated look.

"Well this academy is the perfect place for him" said the man, he sat straight up and fixed his suit. A pin sat across the left side of his chest, _principal_ it read, "Let my assistant show you to your locker." 

"Oh no need, I wouldn't want to bother your assistant, I think I can find it on my own."

The man easily gave up the offer and showed the boy a map of where his locker was.

"You're going to be locker 4419. I suggest hurrying now before the the next class starts," The principal handed the boy a lock for his locker.

The mom turned to her son, glaring at him she asks, "Now you're going to behave right?"

"Of course" the boy said.

She spots the hat her son was wearing, a backwards baseball cap with a graffiti logo printed on what would be the front, she quickly swiped it off his head, earning a grunt of annoyance from the young boy. 

His hair, bleached blond although the dark roots began to show through, fell unevenly across his forehead.

"Bye honey, don't get into any trouble. I'll see you after school." The boy's mom said lightly griping her son's sleeve as he got up to receive the lock. The boy just nods his head towards his mom and leaves.

He made his way down the hallway passing through a large foyer with a big chandelier hanging in the center, the boy just rolled his eyes at it. He walked through great hall that stretched deep into the other side of the school, he looked up and down the side halls looking for the hall that would correspond with his locker number. As he passed he saw that double doors made of mahogany indicated each classroom. Why they had to be double doors made of a deep dark wood was beyond him.

As the boy walked, he noticed there were barely any students in the halls. Some students where lingering in the halls, either the couples making out or the bullies picking on a nerd.

 _Tch, even with it's fancy exterior this place is like all schools_ , he think to himself. The boy hurried through he large long hallway trying to get to his locker so he can get to class on time. _Why are there so many lockers?_ he thought to himself in annoyance.

He arrived at locket 4419 and was about to open it when he spotted a large bolt positioned on his locker door where a lock would typically go. Curiously, he slid the bolt out and slowly opened the locker.

A boy with light brown hair was crammed into his locker. "What the hell is this?" The blonde boy said in a bothered tone. The blonde was about to curse out the boy in his locker when he noticed faint streaks on the brown haired boy's face. _Wait, was he crying?_

"Hey you" the blonde boy said, nudging the brown haired one in his locker.

He stirred stirred awake blinking slowly and adjusting his eyes to the sudden presence of light, "oh um hi there," the boy shuffled around in the locker avoiding eye contact with the other boy. "Who are you?" The brain haired boy asked.

"Shouldn't I be the one to ask you that? The boy spit almost nastily, only toning it down when he noticed the boy flinch at his words.

"I- I'm sorry." The brown haired boy said scrunching down more which wedged himself further in the locker.

The blonde boy immediately softened his harsh gaze on the boy. "I'm Jisung, Han Jisung".

"I'm lee minh-" the boy was so quiet he was barely audible.

"What was that?" Jisung said loudly in comparison to the boy.

"Lee Know!, I'm Lee Know." The brown haired boy said shutting his eyes and bring his hands in front of his face defensively. 

"Mmm Lee Know," Jisung paused after saying it, "Is that all together or first and last?"

"Wha- oh um all together."

"Alright, Lee Know, one question - what are you doing in my locker?" 

"Ah n- nothing" Lee Know responded quickly, trying to get out of the locker. Struggling, he looked up at Jisung who just watched him with an almost pitied look.

"Dude, do you need help or something," Jisung finally asked.

"Yeah, could you?" Lee Know said, unable to meet the blonde's eyes.

Jisung held out his hand to Lee Know who looked at the hand and hesitantly took it. He heaved the Lee Know from inside the locker and then immediately released his hand.

Jisung immediatley noticed the boy's good build: _an inch taller than me, his facial features are distinct and prominent - his nose was must have been sculpted by the greek gods themselves. f Broad shoulders, ... freaking thighs! His thights looked like fricken semi-trucks_. Jisung caught himself lost in thought and staring at the boy's legs. "Ehm, so what were you doing in my locker?"

"L- like I said it was nothing." Lee Know responded quietly. He cast his gaze to the ground to avoid looking at the blonde boys eyes. "I just sit in there often to be alone," he said in a shy defensive manner.

"Oh I see," Jisung said understandingly, but in fact he was not convinced one bit. Behind his back Jisung clutched the bolt that had been slide into the lock of the locker. _He's such a bad liar_. Jisung didn't want to push and ask why he was crying or call him out for the blatant lie, so instead, he stood and nodded at the boy.

"You must be new. Nobody uses this locker, at least not this year." The boy said to Jisung while still looking at the ground.

"Yeah I'm new, what about it?" Jisung responded, his words coming out harsher than intended. Lee Know winced at the boy's sudden change in tone which Jisung perceived.

"No, nothing. Nothing about it, I'm sorry." He apologized to Jisung, his eyes strayed back to the ground. Unsure of what to say. Jisung glanced at Lee Know's eyes, they were crusted with tried tears and he noticed the dark bags underneath the boy's eyes.

Lee Know noticed and snapped quietly, "what are you looking at?" his eyebrows furrowed towards each other.

"You're in front of my locker actually" Jisung said with his annoyance back in place. He had forgotten that class was about to start and found it appropriate to get a bit hissy at the situation.

"Oh,I'm so sorry! I'll go, my class is actually going to start soon." Lee Know said hurrying along, he lowered his head in shame.

Jisung's eyes followed the boy down the hall, disappearing as the latter turned down another hallway. Jisung looks at his locker, the door's slot for the lock looked eroded from multiple uses. He didn't even have any binders to put in his locker so he threw in the bolt and shut it. Jisung hurried along the halls trying to find his first class. Already late for his first class at his new high school was a fat drag in Jisung's book of complaints.

 _P_ _AR 10_ 3 was the label above the two mahogany doors Jisung stood in front of. He slowly pushed the doors hoping to quietly slip in without anyone noticing. For a such a fancy school the doors were loud as fuck. _CREEEEEEEEEEEK_ the doors went as Jisung tried to enter the class unsuspiciously. All the heads in the room turned to him. Jisung looks at the board at the front of the class, _world history?? Fuck me_.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Jisung looked around the room at the eyes staring at him. He scanned the rows closest to him, hoping to find a seat near by. But he was out of luck, the back two rows were full so Jisung made his way down to a half empty row and found a seat - all eyes still on him.

_Do I have something on my face?_

"And who are you?" the teacher asked while flipping through their roster, it was barely even 10 and Jisung was already over with the day.

First his mom told him he was transferring schools, demanding that he transferred that day. Then some weird pretty boy got stuck in his locker, next he was embarrassed in front of the whole class already, and finally his teacher was putting him on the spot.

Jisung leaned back in his chair, "I'm Han Jisung." Murmurs in the room started up and students looked back and forth between their friends and Jisung.

"I'm new as of today so I'm probably not on the roster yet" he quickly adds. "I have a note from the principal," he said, now embarrassed as hell. As much as Jisung acts like the main attraction, he preferred to stay out of the limelight. He got up and walked to the front of the lecture hall, handing the teacher the slip of paper before promptly turning back to to his seat.

"I see, welcome to JYP Academy"

Jisung's ears were burning red at this point. He takes out a beanie form his backpack and puts it on, pulling it over his ears. The teacher resumed the lesson, and Jisung tried following as best he could but he was lost from having just joined the class.

The boy sitting to his right leaned over and whispers to Jisung, "hey, that was quite a scene," a black haired boy said in a whisper.

"It was pretty shit, actually my whole day has been pretty shit." Jisung replied not very quiet but enough so the teacher didn't hear him. The people in the row in front turned to see what the commotion was.

"Wow there, language my friend," the boy said, "it's not even 10:00 in the morning.

"Do you students not swear or something? Man, you're all just boring."

"Well excuse me," the dark haired boy said dramatically, "I'm not sure who you're lumping me with but I happen to be very fun. And if I'm being honest your presence is shocking."

"Ouch, rude much?" Jisung said sarcastically, putting his right arm over his heart.

"Ah, no I didn't mean like that. I mean you're just different than everyone here."

Jisung looked around the room and it was true, he didn't have a uniform like the other students and his hair was the only blonde hair in the room. He wore a beanie while everyone had perfectly combed hair.

Jisung immediately started to feel self conscious, he heard two girls in front of him whisper to each other and look back at him. "Hey what're you staring at?" He says aggressively, the two girls shriek in fear.

"What is the commotion back there?" The teacher turn around to face the class. "Do I have to give detention?" The entire class fell quiet and eyes were on Jisung once again. "I didn't do anything wrong," Jisung complained, feeling the situation being unfair.

"Have you been paying attention in class?" The teacher asks. Jisung's ears start to burn, but he luckily was wearing a beanie. The teacher started asking Jisung questions, "Who was Cuba's ruler in 1960?" The class looks from the teacher to Jisung. "Fidel Castro was the Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976. He was then president from 1976 to 2008" Jisung responded without stuttering.

"That is correct," the teacher looked half impressed but not fully, "please refrain from talking from now on," he said turning back to the board. All the students continued to stare at Jisung but now with wide eyes. Jisung could feel their eyes burning from all around him. And here he was trying to just have a normal school day.

The bell rang for the class to be over. It wasn't one of those automatic bells that rang at an annoying frequency, it was one of those large old bells that someone had to ring by hand.

_Ding_

_Dong_

_Ding_

_Dong_

_Finally,_ Jisung thought, _lunchtime_. He started walking out of the class along with the other hurried bodies from his class. _At least one thing hasn't changed, kids will always be excited for food._

"Hey!" Jisung heard someone call after him. It was the black haired boy who sat next to him in class.

"Hm?" Jisung responded, the two boys walked through the hall.

"That was pretty cool what you did back there, how did you know the answer so well?" The boy asked

"Uhhhh..." Despite being laid back and carefree, Jisung was exceptionally book smart, guess those hours of cram school helped him get out of a pickle.

Jisung didn't want his prowess as a smart student to get out so he lied, "lucky guess?" Jisung said while slowly shrugging ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ "The boy stoped and turned to Jisung squinting and giving him a suspicious look.

"Uhhhhh.... I... You know what? I realized I have to call my mom to tell her I found my class and that I'm alright. Bye" Jisung quickly mutter all out at once and began to race through the large hall, but a hand suddenly stopped him.

"Wait hold up I was joking I don't care," the black haired boy said. "How about you join me and my friends for lunch?" Jisung stops himself from taking off, "uh sure I guess. That works. But I wasn't lying, I do have to call my mom and update her on my classes."

"Ah alright sI'll meet you in the cafeteria?"

"Sure. oh and what's your name?" Jisung asked the boy.

"My name is Hyunjin"

"Nice to formally meet you, im-"

"Jisung, Han Jisung. I remember from class," Hyunjin said giving a slight laugh.

Jisung rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Well I better get that call over with, I'll see you in the cafeteria," Jisung said waving bye to his new friend.

Jisung walked through the hall against a wave of people who he assumed were making their way to the cafeteria. He found a quiet hall and pulled out his phone from his back pocket and stared at the screen. Instead of calling his mom he decided to just text his parents.

**Family chat**

Jisung

I found my first class and I know where my next few classes are

Mother

Splendid, now you better behave, I don't ever want to hear another call from a school complaining about your behavior. Don't forget to collect all the homework assignment and notes you've missed from your teachers, we don't want you falling behind because you transferred in the middle of the year

Father

I agree with your mother, I'm glad you found your classes but make sure you're paying attention in class, and come home straight after school

Jisung

Alright I'll make sure to do everything, see you after school

_seen by Mother_

_seen by Father_

Jisung turned his phone off and put it back in his pocket. He leaned against the cold wall and stared up at the ceiling. A few seconds passed and he noticed that the halls were empty. Jisung hiked his backpack over his should and stepped out into the main hall. His foot steps echoed in the empty and large hall. Jisung was heading to the Cafeteria when he decided he'd rather put his backpack in his locker. _Would be a drag to have to lug it to the second story_ , he thinks to himself.

His locker was on the way to the cafeteria so it wasn't that much of a pain, his locker however was one of the furthest from the main hall, located in one of the branches extending out of a sub-hall.

As Jisung approached the hall to his locker he heard a sound, the clinking and smashing of locker doors. A piercing cry rung from down the hall and Jisung began a full on sprint, stopping just before the corner. He peered around to see what the commotion was. He was horrified by the sight before him. He had a hunch but he didn't want to be right about it.

Around the corner there were three tall boys, he guessed they were probably seniors. They kicked a boy curled on the floor by the side of Jisung's locker. To Jisung's horror it was the same brown haired boy from that morning. _Lee Know?_!

"How'd the fuck you get out?" Said a tall skinny boy in glasses who delivered a blow to Lee know's side. "Did I give you permission to show your face in class this morning?"

"No- yo-u didn't," was the only response from the hunched over lump on the floor. A second boy kicked him in the back knocking him flat on his stomach. At this point tears filled Lee Know's eyes, now swelling from crying. Jisung couldn't tell from where he was but it looked like his lip was busted.

 _Holy shit_ was all Jisung could think at the moment. _I have to help him right? He's in so much pain I can tell._ Jisung was about to intervene when his mother's words rang in his head, "n _ow make sure you behave, I don't ever want to hear another call from a school complaining about your behavior."_

Jisung's body suddenly became frozen with fear. _What? why can't I move?_ Jisung looked down at his feet but they wouldn't budge. The three boys were so close, Jisung could feel his fist connecting with their ugly faces. _They aren't even that strong so why won't my body move? "_ _You better behave"_ his mother's words paralyzed him.

Jisung's eyes flew back up to the scene, the three older boys now held their prey on his knees. Lee Know tried to fight back but two larger boys had his arms tightly secured behind his back. The glasses boy had Lee Know in a headlock.

"Open the locker," glasses boy said. "But he knows how to get out," said the second boy said holding onto Lee Know's right arm. "Ugh you fucking f*ggot," the glasses said shouting in at the boy's ear; "Put his arm in the locker" he said to the second boy.

"No!! please no!!" Lee Know screamed and begged, thrashing against the three boys. "Please no!!!" He yelled, as tears streaked down his face. The boy holding Lee Know's left arm extended it onto the locker. "Shut the locker quickly before he shakes free."

At this moment Jisung lost all sense of fear and ran at full speed towards one of the boys. He slammed into the boy holding Lee Know's right arm and the one who was going to slam the locker. The wind was knocked out of both of them but Jisung popped back up to his feet. Out of shock the two remaining boys let go of Lee Know who staggered to his feet and stared at Jisung.

Jisung wasted no time and struck the boy he had just tackled in the face.

"Fuck! My nose! you broke my nose" the boy said holding his face.

"R-E-L-A-X your nose isn't broken. I've broken some noses before but yours isn't one of them," commented Jisung. He glared at the other two boys. Jisung singled out glasses boy and pointed "you however deserve the broken nose."

"Let's get out of here," said the boy who hadn't been threatened yet. Glasses boy stared right at Jisung. His eyes a dark with rage. "Tch (hair band lolol, jk) fine, let's go." The one on the ground quickly got to his feet in a panic and they all left towards the cafeteria.

Jisung released a big sigh and leaned against his locker. He looked around but Lee Know had disappeared too. _Where did-_ he began.

"Jisung?" a voice called out. Jisung whipped his head to the side expecting to see Lee Know, but Hyunjin's face peaked around the corner instead. "What are you doing? Everyone's waiting for you in the cafeteria." Jisung rocked forward to his feet.

"Yeah I'm coming." he responds slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

_Where did he run off to?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why is Minho lying about his name?? Well we'll just have to find out. Sorry if it was a bit awkward to read, I tried to avoid using Lee Know as a descriptor pronoun and only use it when a character is referring to Minho, but it probably just made things weird 🥴  
> Thanks for reading my story. Updates are slow for this one only because my story line changes like a bijillion times as I'm writing it. Comments are appreciated, I want to know if the series is liked :) bye bye ~


	2. Little white Lie

"You did what???" Yelled Hyunjin. "You're telling me that right before I found you in the back hallway you threatened to break Jae's nose AND you punched Brian in the face?" Hyunjin said with a face full of sandwich.

"Ummm yeah. I guess I did," Jisung said, nervously laughing at his own actions.

"You've got some guts to threaten the members of Day6, I can admire that," Hyunjin said while taking a bite of his food.

"But there were only 3 of them," Jisung replied. He played with his rice on his plate unable to eat anything. He pinched a pea with his chopsticks and the pea flew out onto the table.

"They aren't the best at math," he replied, "anyways, these are my friends." Hyunjin opened his arms to show the rest of the people sitting at the round table, the seven other boys waved at Jisung with wide smiles.

One of the boys spoke out, "Sup, my names Chris but you can call me Chan." Chan extended his hand to shake the new kid's hand.

Jisung rose from his chair and awkwardly leaned across the table to shake hands with the built boy. He quickly sat back down and put his hands on his lap unsure if someone else might extend a hand.

A boy next to Chan spoke out, "hi there my name is Felix," the boy said in a heavy Australian accent. "Chan is my older brother but I recently moved here from Australia. Nice to meet you."

Jisung's eyes widened, he was shocked by the kid's low voice.

"I'm also in your year, sophomore year, right?" Felix added. A few seconds passed before Jisung comprehended Felix's question.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Jisung said quickly. He was even more shocked and slightly embarrassed for thinking Felix was a freshman.

Felix rubbed the back of his neck, "I was in your world history class this morning, I sat behind you but I was too nervous to say hi."

Jisung let out a little "oh" in response.

"You were cool today in class." Felix quickly added.

Jisung's cheeks blushed slightly from the sudden shy nature of Felix.

"Would you be willing to help me study for world history? You seem to know your stuff," Felix said with wide eyes.

"Oh I guess so, I'd have to check with my parents to see if I can stay at school late."

"Great!, But it doesn't have to be today; I forgot to do an English project and that's due tomorrow, so I have to get home and do that."

Chan, who was talking to someone on the other side of him whipped around to face Felix, "Felix, I told you to stop playing video games and work on that project! Like mate, stop procrastinating." Chan whined.

"Chan! Your weren't suppose to hear that." Felix said, quickly trying to defend himself.

A small boy speaks to break the tension between the brothers. "Im Jeongin! A freshman," the boy smiled innocently. How can someone be so adorable? Jisung thought. Jeongin had braces on and when he spoke he had the tiniest lisp. _Must be protected at all cost,_ Jisung thought.

"I know what you're thinking, Jeongin really is an adorable kid, but he can be savage to his hyungs," Chan pipped in snapping Jisung out of his thoughts. "Oh really?" Was all Jisung could say before an older boy spoke.

"He's nicer than Seungmin," a black haired boy called out, raising his arm to point at another boy with chestnut brown hair.

"Changbin it's rude to point at people," Chan said standing suddenly in an attempt to lower his arm, but Changbin lowered his arm before Chan could touch him. "Considering the things he's said to me, pointing is the nicest thing I can do to him."

"You just hate me cause you ain't me." The chestnut haired boy said in reply to his hyung's actions.

Hyunjin turned to Jisung, "that's Changbin hyung, we bully him a lot but we all love him; but don't tell him that. " Hyunjin whispered that last part. "Over there is Seungmin," Hyunjin threw his head up to eye Seungmin. "He's like Jeongin, adorable but savage. He's in our year too."

All Jisung could offer was a nod. He stared back down at his plat. Jisung was being unusually quiet for someone as loud and unbothered as him. Finally he caved. "Hey, have you guys heard of a kid named Lee Know at this school?" he say's out of the blue.

"Lee Know? Uh yeah I think so," Chan said. Jisung's eyes shot up and he leaned into the table waiting for anymore word from Chan. "He was in my year last year, but I think he was held back.

"You're right!" Changbin chimed in, "he's in my year now. but I don't really pay much attention to him. I don't think anyone really does, except Day6, but they just like picking on easy prey."

Jisung sulked back down into his chair. "Easy prey? But he looks so tough," Jisung said confused.

Changbin stared up at the ceiling with a spoon draped over his bottom lip, "I don't know much about him and I hardly see him in first period, but in class he's quiet."

"Aren't most people in class quiet?" Jisung questioned Changbin.

"I mean yeah, but he's really quiet, like really quiet. He doesn't sit with anyone in class and I can't recall ever seeing him in the cafeteria."

Chan spoke up right after Changbing finished, "I'm guessing he never made friends cause he transferred last year so he never went to any freshman orientation." Chan lowered his head in shame, " I guess everyone thought he preferred to be alone."

Jisung stared hard at Chan. "None of you tried to be friends with him?" Everyone at the table Lowered their eyes slightly embarrassed but not really.

"We all became friends because we are part of a club called Stray Kids." It was Seungmin who spoke. "Other than clubs, students don't really mix outside their grade."

Jisung nodded sort of comprehending the school dynamic. He turned back to Changbin, "what did you mean by Lee Know is quiet?"

Changbin, who had leaned back in his chair, straightened up at the sound of Jisung directing the conversation back to him. "Oh well..." Changbin paused to gather his thoughts. " Ah, usually you're supposed to say at least one thing during class, which counts as participating in the class; it could even be "here" in roll call. But now that I think about it, he doesn't even say that. It probably earns him detention at the end of the week."

Jisung again questioned his hyung. "But I don't think that would make someone "easy prey" Jisung said still not convinced why Lee Know was picked on. The table was silent, unable to answer the new kid's question.

"Well I did hear one rumor that went around last year." All eyes at the table turned to Chan who now spoke in a quiet tone. Everyone had to lean in to hear him. "I heard that last year, Lee Know would come to school with bruises on his arms. I'm guessing others thought he just got bullied at school and that's how he wound up with bruises. But think about," Chan said staring right at Jisung, "you don't come to school with bruises."

Everyone hesitantly nodded in agreement with Chan's speculation.

"He was rumored to have been in a gang and that's why he had bruises or busted knuckles. When that went around, all the girls avoided him. The guys however wanted to fight him. Day6 were the first to do so. It supposedly went down on the last day of school. I think they've been bullying him since then."

"Wow that's a lot to take in." Jisung said leaning back. "But how do you know so much about him if no one pays attention to him?" Chan raised his right hand and beckoned Jisung closer.

"Hyung! We want to hear!" Felix whined.

"Shush, this is just for Jisung," Chan said turning to Felix. Chan turned back to Jisung and whispered, "the big rumor was that Lee Know actually murdered someone. " Jisung was speechless. His eyes wider than before. Chan pulled back to the group, but still faced Jisung. "I only know so much because I was part of the school newspaper. I wanted to cover his story but the school shut me down."

"What did he tell you?" Felix asked, leaning past Chan to see Jisung. Chan lightly slapped Felix in the stomach with the back of his hand. "Don't be so nosy," the older brother said.

Jisung was lost in thought, "why hasn't anyone done something about it?"

Changbin added his own comment, "bullying happens a lot here, he ain't special. All these kids come from rich backgrounds and the competition here is high. You got to be careful who you help."

Hyunjin jumped himself back into the conversation, "this academy is one of the three most prestigious academies in South Korea. Some people do really sly things in order to succeed, I heard one guy murdered someone." Jisung shot Chan a discreet look from the corner of his eye. Chan stared at him silently telling Jisung to keep his mouth shut.

Changbin looked straight at Jisung. "Most bullying goes unnoticed by faculty due to the sheer number of students here. That Lee Know guy is just one more grain of sand in a beach. Everyone here at this Academy is a grain of sand" Changbin finished sighing back into his chair.

"i've been bullied before," Jeongin said, weakly raising his hand. "They made fun of my braces and they pushed me around a lot. Luckily it stopped becuase Channie-hyung came up to defend me and my classmates are terrified of seniors."

Jisung couldn't help but feel sympathetic to the freshman. But he's so adorable, he thought.

"I got bullied for my weak pronunciation in speech and debate. It happens a lot at here, I mean the bullying"

Jisung looked at Hyunjin and Jeongin with sympathetic eyes. Although he was upset with his new friends being bullied, he couldn't help but understand why Lee Know was physically assaulted. What could he have done to deserve bullying to that extent?

Jisung stirred in his chair, "I- uh, I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be back." Jisung said standing up quickly and heading downstairs. "But there's a bathroom on this floor." Changbin said. "Maybe he didn't know about it?" Felix shrugged. The entire table watched him as he walked hurridly through the cafeteria.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Jisung found himself hurrying down an empty hallway once again. I'm just seeing if he's ok, yeah that's it, Jisung thought, trying to convince himself of a reasonable explanation for why he's going out of his way to search for a random boy.

Jisung thought of the most predictable place to find a kid who's just been beat up: the bathroom.

Jisung hurried to the bathroom that was closest to his locker. He assumed Lee Know wouldn't have gone far from the scene.

He entered the large bathroom breathing heavily. Jisung looked to see if there was anyone in the stalls but the stall doors went all the way to the ground. Damn these rich kids.

Jisung could only hear his rapid heart beat. He walked down the stalls, peeking and lightly pushing stall doors on either side of him. As he made his way down the bathroom he heard a small sound.

"Lee Know?" He called out. The noise stopped. "Lee Know, it's Jisung. Are you here?"

"Who?" A voice shook out, the sound echoed in the large bathroom.

"It's umm.. the boy who found you in the locker this morning," was all Jisung could think of.

It was silent for a moment, and then the boy's voice echoed again.

"y-ye-yes, I'm her-here," he spoke, a voice coming from the last stall.

I mean I assumed you were hear after responding to me the first time, but Jisung didn't want to patronize the boy. He walked over to the last stall where he heard the voice.

He lightly pushed the stall door to reveal a hunched over boy in the bathroom stall. The boy's eyes were puffy from lightly crying.

The older boy looked up to meet Jisung's eyes.  
"How did you find me?" He asked, quickly breaking eye contact and staring at the stall wall.

Jisung laughed a little and said, "I used to have to go find people like you back at my school, I wasn't done with them." Jisung said gallantly staring into the distance like if he was in a drama.

He immediately regretted that last part because when he looked back down at the boy, Jisung saw him tense up and squeeze into a smaller ball than before.

Jisung saw how Lee Know reacted so he quickly threw out, "but I'm not here to do anything to you, I swear. I just want to talk."

From the boy's tense body, Jisung could tell he didn't want to talk.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Jisung said in an attempt to lighten the air around them. He knew he wasn't going to get an answer.

Jisung crouched down to Lee Know's level. Jisung clearly saw his lip quivering, unable to make a noise.

"You got beat pretty badly back then," Jisung said doing his best to comfort the brown haired boy.

Lee Know turned his body away from Jisung who was still in the stall doorway.

"Are you ok?" Jisung managed to ask knowing the question could be taken in different ways.

The boy shook his head slowly. Moving it side to side then looking away from Jisung.

"It ju-just keeps getting worse." Lee Know manages to say.

Slowly, Jisung approached the brown haired boy, resting his hand on his back.

Jisung gracefully brings Lee Know into a silent embrace.

What am I doing? Jisung was confused by his own actions. He's never hugged anyone, not even his parents, but for some reason he couldn't let go of the trembling boy before him.

The two boys stayed like that for a few moments. The clock hand in the bathroom ticked on; the moment plastered in both their minds forever.

Tick tock

Tick tock

Tick tock

.

.

.

Jisung had lost count of how many times he heard that sound.

It wasn't until Lee Know moved did Jisung start to pull away, but to his surprise, the boy nuzzled his head into Jisung's chest.

Jisung's heart started to hurt from the sight of this; It wasn't because he was cradling another boy in his arms, in fact he kinds found it cute, but it was that the boy in his arms was so desperate for a shoulder to cry on. The sight truly hurt him.

Jisung felt his eyes begin to water. His vision began to blur and his mind became hazy. A few more moments went by with Lee Know in his arms.

Still in a trance, Jisung pulled away from the embrace only to bring his hands up to boy's face and cup his swollen cheeks.

Jisung moved closer to him, his face only a few inches away from Lee Know's. Jisung hovered over the boy's face. Lee Know looked up at Jisung as Jisung looked down at his.

Jisung's position blocked all light shining on The brwn haired boy's face so he was unable to see his expression.

The boy closed his eyes unable to look at Jisung. Jisung opened him mouth to say something when the door of the bathroom opened suddenly.

"Jisung buddy, you in here?"

Jisung snapped back to reality from the sound of Hyunjin's voice.

"Uh, yeah I am." Jisung quickly pulled his face and hands away from Lee Know who was now looking at him with big glossy eyes.

When Jisung looked at the boy, he noticed a tear sitting in the middle of the male's face that had fallen from his eye.

Jisung could feel his ears turn red and so he jumped up from the floor and peeked out the stall door, wiping away any signs of crying. He saw Chan, Hyunjin, and Felix standing in the doorway of the bathroom.

"Hurry up, classes are going to start again." Hyunjin said holding up Jisung's backpack that he left in the Cafeteria.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he said, Jisung began to leave the stall when he was stopped by a tug on the hem of his shirt. Confused, Jisung whipped his head down the the brown haired boy.

"My name is Minho," the boy said in a voice so quiet, Jisung almost missed it.

"What?" Was all Jisung managed to say before being cut off by the boy on the ground.

"I'm Lee Minho," the boy released Jisung's shirt. The younger one stared wonderingly at the boy now renamed as Minho.

Stealing one last glance, Jisung exited the stall and joined up with his friends who were waiting at the front door of the bathroom leaving Minho once again alone in the bathroom.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

The next two classes were a bore for Jisung, but luckily he had Hyunjin and Felix in most of his classes.

He only really saw Chan, Changbin, and Jeongin at lunch. Seungmin apparently shared PE with Jisung, but they didn't have that class on Wednesdays.

Jisung had gone back to the bathroom between his math and English class but Minho wasn't there. He had secretly hoped to see Minho, yet the reason for that was beyond him.

Even though Jisung had only been at the school for less than a day, he felt the eyes of most of the students in his classes glance towards him.

He couldn't tell if it was from this morning in his world history class, or if word of him standing up against DAY6 that triggered their attention towards him.

Jisung didn't know it was neither of those things. Again he forgot he was the only one not wearing the school uniform and students thought he was a delinquent.

Jisung was sort of glad to avoid the brown haired boy because he wasn't sure if he could face Minho after what he did that day.

I hugged him? I hugged him first? And I put my hands on his face? AND I cried on him??!

Jisung's face began to heat up and he could feel his ears turning red.

Jisung continued to ramble in his head, I must be out of my mind. He probably thinks I'm a weird pervert or something? What if he never wants to see me again? I mean I wouldn't blame him I'm a hotheaded, boy who has a bad temper who had to transfer becau-

"Hey, can I borrow a -" Hyunjin started to say right before Jisung slammed his face on the desk in front of him.

The entire room looked back to see what the loud noise was.

"Jisung are you ok!?" Hyunjin and Felix said in unison, shocked at Jisung's sudden action.

Felix began to extend him hand to rest on Jisung's back but Jisung's hand suddenly rose just beyond the desk for Felix to see.

"I'm fine, I'll be ok." Was all Jisung could say. His face was still red and hot but now it was red for a different reason.

"Mr. Han, I know I said to hit the books I didn't mean it literally." The teacher said from the front of the room.

Some student giggled from the comment. Jisung sighed loud enough for the room to hear, he just wants the school day to be done.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

"Finally!" Felix said stretching his arms out. "School's over."

"This was the longest day of my life," Jisung said, sulking as he walked to the front of the school.

"Cheer up Jisungie, it wasn't too bad. You met me! And Hyunjin too. In fact, the whole group." Felix smiled at Jisung with puppy like eyes.

"Do you want to go to a cafe right now?" Felix asked skipping along side Jisung.

"I can't, I have to go straight home and study, then go to cram school."

"Oh wow, you're the studious one. Now I definitely want you to help me study." Felix laughed playfully.

Jisung lightly laughed but it was replaced with a forlorn look.

"I'll wait with you if your folks are about to pick you up. Only if you want," Felix quickly added that last part.

At that moment Jisung's phone vibrated in his pocket

Family Chat

**Mother**

Hey Honey, Father is coming over to get you

**Father**

I'm coming to get you Jisung :)

**Jisung**

Alright thanks

I'll wait by the outside gate

**Mother**

Why don't you take this time to talk to your professors and ask for any extra work?

You do have to catch up what you missed

**Jisung**

My teachers said I didn't need to worry about catching up on assignments and tests

They said I just had to focus on catching up on notes for midterms

**Mother**

No, you will do the assignments and tests. I'm not going to have you behind the other students

**Jisung**

Mom! I'm already going to cram school

I can't handle more work!

_seen by Mother_

**Jisung**

*Mother, I'm already going to cram school and the workload is already too much

**Mother**

If that's the case we can always cut out your extracurriculars

_seen by Jisung_

᠃ ᠃ ᠃ ᠃

Jisung saw the text and then immediately turned his phone off and stuffed it angrily into his pocket.

"What was that?" Felix said with a bit of worry in his voice.

"Ah nothing really." But in fact it wasn't nothing. Jisung was pissed at his mom; he hated the thought of dropping his taekwondo. He had taken taekwondo since he was 7 with his best friend.

Jisung swung his hand to hit the fence he was leaning against but forced his hand to stop when he realized he wasn't leaning against a chain link fence like at his old school.

He was resting against a solid wall that would have obliterated Jisung's hand if he actually forcefully hit it.

Damn these rich kids

He remembered that Felix was with him and he forced himself to calm down.

"Would you stay with me?" Jisung asked quietly.

Felix, who was surprised by his sudden change in nature, nodded and they both leaned against the wall in silence.

Jisung didn't go to any teachers, he was tired of his mom dictating his every move, and so he and Felix waited for Jisung's dad to pick him up.

His dad, Mr. Han, came rolling to a stop in front of the main gate where all the kids get picked up. He honked his horn 3 times to signal Jisung he was there.

Jisung, who was right in front saw his dad eagerly waving to Jisung from the drivers seat.

"Father, that's embarrassing!" Jisung said writing through his teeth as he approached the car.

"Jisung, it's ok to call me dad, it's just the two of us." His dad said pushing his sunglasses onto his forehead. A big friendly grin greeted him.

Jisung furrowed his eyebrows. "Ok, dad, that's embarrassing, " he repeated, muttered the sentance.

"Lighten up Jisung, you'll get wrinkles like me if you keep frowning.

Jisung frowned even more. Felix on the other hand was laughing.

"You're dad is cool," Felix commented.

Jisung thanked Felix and quickly departed from school grounds.

"Who was that?" Jisung's dad asked eagerly.

Jisung just grunted as he threw his bag into the backseat.

"You moody cause you had a rough day?" Jisung was surprised that his dad could read his that easily. The two don't get many opportunities to be alone together so Jisung's dad did the best he could to bond with Jisung.

When Jisung was younger, his dad would go overseas often for work. He wasn't home for a lot of his early life. It wasn't until recently did he spend more time at home.

Jisung's mom raised Jisung alone most of his childhood. Although Jisung has a rough relationship with his mom, hr felt closer to her than his dad. Purely because he's been around her more.

"A little. I didn't want to transfer schools. I liked my old one."

"At your old school you didn't mind the attention, what changed?"

"The eyes here just feel different."

Turning to face his gaze out the window, Jisung was silent for a moment.

"I don't know, at my old school it was cool to rebel and not give a shit. Everyone here is so prestigious and they look at me strangely."

Jisung began to curl himself into a ball, tucking his knees to his chest and resting his head on them.

"I think that was your mother's intentions. She wants the best for you and just wants you to get back on the right track."

"But what even is the right track and how would mother know what that track is?" Jisung says giving a hopeless tone.

"I'm sorry that you feel this way, I tried to tell her to at least wait till the semester ended before making an irrational decision but you know how she is."

Jisung just sighed still facing the window. He watched as the other cars went by his window. It was only 4:00 so it was still light out but Jisung watched the sun hover over the ocean.

The academy sat on a private area near the beach; infact, The academy actually owned a section of the beach. Students went down there for science classes and PE.

"Did you make friends?"

"No not really," Jisung said sulking in the front seat.

"Who was that waiting with you outside?"

"A kid in my class."

The tension in the car was so thiccc, one could cut it with a butter knife.

"There was this strange kid when I got there." Jisung finally said, rushing through the sentence holding his dad didn't hear.

"Oh? A strange boy you say? Was it the one standing with you?"

"No, no, although he's strange for his own reasons."

"What's this strange boy like?" His father said peeking at Jisung from his peripheral vision.

Jisung was quiet. Jisung started by telling his dad about his encounter with the boy in his locker and what the other's told him about the boy. Jisung mentioned finding the boy in the bathroom but never went into detail about what actually happened between the two of them. His dad just smiled and nodded, happy that his son was opening up to him.

"He so distant to others, I-I just have a weird feeling about him. I don't think it's a bad feeling, but more of a sad feeling." Jisung ended his rant and looked out the window, falling back into a sulking trance.

The car was approaching their street when Jisung's dad spoke, "how about this, I "take you" to cram school tonight but we instead go eat out, sound good?"

Jisung whipped his head around, the brightest smile appeared on Jisung's face. Even though he would have to endure his mother's wrath later, he was happy to spend some time with his dad.

"Oh- I actually lied a bit early, I did make some friends." Jisung confessed.

"You can tell me all about them over some good food."

Jisung skipped Cram school and instead, went to get sushi with his dad. He told his dad about the new group he was in and everyone involved. He told hid dad about being late for his first class and how embarrassing it was for him.

His dad chuckled at his son's words and the two shared laughs and smiles.

"You know mom's going to find out about this. The cram school will contact her," Jisung said, the mood shifted slightly.

"Don't worry about that, I'll handle it." Jisung smiled at his dad as he stuffed his cheeks with another piece of sushi. For the first time in a while he was content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally Minho reveals his real name, it was actually kinda awkward to write Lee Know every-time instead of Minho 🥴  
> I'm sure it was even more akward to read it as Lee Know, but now it's been cleared, but why did Minho lie about his name????


	3. Sunkissed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi ~ I'm finally uploading the last chapter that was on Wattpad. Now that all the chapters that were on Wattpad are on Ao3, I'll be uploading primarily here. 
> 
> I originally wrote the first chapter in July and had never written fanfic before so I actually forgot what I had wanted to happen in this fic. However I am committed in trying to salvage whatever storyline I have established. It is going to be tricky to adapt a fic on a storyline that I've forgotten about so I thank those who actually bare with me on this, I love you TㅅT
> 
> Sorry I didn't proof read  
> "No beta, ima bitch and impatient" - my neighbor who was in the same room as me when I write this

The next few days went by surprisingly fast, Jisung's mom bought him the school uniform which consisted of a white buttoned down and a navy blue vest, and khaki pants. Jisung absolutely hated it but if it meant blending in with everyone, so be it.

Jisung even dyed his hair black which his mom looked approvingly at. When he saw this he immediately gave himself grey streaks which angered his mom but Jisung didn't care.

When at school, Jisung noticed that a few people didn't wear the uniform. Their appearance stuck out from the crowed like a sore thumb. He was glad he could blend into the crowed, keeping eyes off him.

Jisung was fitting surprisingly well into Hyunjin, Felix and Seungmin's group. The three of them were used to all be in the same classes in freshman year but now they got split up this year. Jisung shared two classes with Hyunjin and Felix and one class with Seungmin. World history and English were still boring as hell, but because he had Hyunjin and Felix in his classes, they were somewhat bearable.

Jisung started helped Felix with homework after school. He had quit the lecture from his mom when he said he was going to be studying with friends after school. She was against the idea becuase she thought Jisung would get too distracted from his own work. But with convincing from his dad, Jisung began staying after school later to help Felix; and slowly, Felix was getting better at understanding the lessons which made him extremely thankful to Jisung.

Seugnmin and Jisung got along really well in PE class, as they both found the love for teasing their hyungs. Together they suffered the intense running unit in the fall. They began the tennis unit which neither of them knew how to do but at least they were in it together.

Unfortunately no one from the group was in his advanced math class. Most of the students were juniors or seniors so he didn't recognize anyone. The class took place on the second floor so the room had desks instead of long counter desks. Jisung also had an assigned seat which he was actually thankful for else he would be sitting next to no one.

Jisung found out his fifth block which was a free period, happened at the same time as Jeongin's free period. And so, the two would often go to the small market near the school to get snacks or go to the beach and hangout.

Jisung only saw or hung-out with Chan and Changbin at lunch or after school when they would pick up Felix from studying with him.

Jisung rarely saw Minho at school. He would sometimes catch glimpses of a brown haired boy but Jisung could never tell if it was Minho for sure. Last week when Jisung and Jeongin had a free period and were on their way to the beach, Jisung swore he saw the back of Minho's light brown hair leaving the school.

He asked Changbin once when they were alone if he'd seen Minho in class but Changbing said Minho must have changed his classes the week of Jisung's or something because he was no longer in any of his classes. Jisung's heart sank a bit after finding out that any connection to the boy was now gone.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

It was Friday and Jisung's mom dropped him off at school really early so he "could study more" before school started, but he didn't. Instead he took the opportunity to look around the school grounds.

It was about 5:00 in the morning and Jisung was barely awake. It would be a few more hours before people started filing through the school.

The school is so big there was a map posted on the wall of the main entrance. _WHAT THE FUCK these rich kids with this rich ass Academy._ Jisung let out a low growl at his surroundings.

He couldn't get used to the high ceilings and marble flooring. Wooden decor was sprinkled around the corners of the Academy.

According to the the map in the front, the academy has 3 dance studios and 2 record studios? Did I read that right?

Jisung decided to check out the supposed recording studios on the second floor.

On his way he peaked into some lecture halls, all looking identical to the previous one. Once in a while, Jisung would accidentally interrupt quiet study sessions hosted by the top students in the class.

On the second floor, a giant hole bore through the second floor, spreading into an atrium. Light filtered from the giant skylight in the ceiling, passing through the second floor and reaching down to the main hall. Around the edge of the atrium were spiraling brass railings.

This place is unbelievable, but this time jisung was impressed. From the second floor the entire school became more grand than what he thought it was like on the first floor.

The rooms of the second floor resembled traditional high school classrooms rather than a lecture hall.

Jisung walked up to the room that said "recording studio 1". He opened the door just enough to see the room. When he saw that no one was there he opened the door and walked in.

The room was insulated and no sound entered or exited when Jisung closed the door. It was so silent that he could hear the blood in his ears.

Jisung was standing in the recording booth when the door to the producers room opened. The lights of the room flicked on.

Jisung instinctively crouched down in hiding, he didn't know why because he wasn't doing anything wrong, but he did.

Jisung heard be footsteps entered the producing room. They stopped for a moment and then he heard the thump of the person's book-bag hit the couch.

He could hear the person sitting down in the studio and typing on their computer. Jisung didn't know what to do and he felt so invasive despite being in the room first.

"Hello? Who's there?" Said a familiar voice.

Jisung's blood was rushing through his ears. He was about to speak up when the familiar voice said his name.

"Jisung, is that you?"

Jisung shot up to face the person behind the glass panes. To his surprise he was looking at Chan sitting in the producer's chair.

"Oh Chan it's you!" Jisung said relieved but mostly shocked. "How did you know it was me?"

"I saw your book bag," Chan said lightly laughing.

Jisung turned to look behind him and his backpack was leaning against the wall. Jisung lightly smacked his head against his hand.

Jisung joined Chan in the producer's room and sat in a chair next to him.

"Are you always this early to school." Jisung asked as he watched Chan organize files on his computer.

"Yeah pretty much, once or twice I've fallen asleep here."

Jisung looked at Chan confusingly.

"Luckily the school is practically open 24 hours so it's not that big a deal but usually students fall asleep at the library not a studio." Chan laughed a little.

Jisung tried to wrap his head around the fact that this was common among the students at the academy.

"What were you doing here for so long?" Was all Jisung could respond.

"Chanbin and I have been working on making music and have actually made a few already. Studying isn't actually why I came to the JYP Academy. I want to make music."

"But wouldn't it be easier to go to a school that specializes in music or at least in your home town?" Jisung questions.

"Haha, yes I guess I could have... but actually, I wanted to come to Seoul because I met a boy from here. He was visiting Australia for a bit and we became friends."

"Oh, what's his name?"

Chan smiled shyly and looked at his feet, "I actually can't remember, we were so young. I remembered he had a really good voice. He was young but he had a gifted voice. " Chan was in a little trance thinking of the past.

"We lost touch when his parents changed their numbers and I never knew their new number." Chan laughed lightly, "pretty stupid of me right?"

"No, no! It sounds really sweet."

"I found my love of music from him and I'm secretly hoping to see him. Whether that's by chance or on stage."

Jisung's eyes widened in awe and curiosity.

"Does Felix know about all this?" Jisung pointed to Chan's computer which had loads of files which he presumed to be different beats and sounds.

"Yes, Felix knows about my musical route and has shown a bit of interest in it, but he's surprisingly really good at dancing has taken up dancing rather than music" a small paused came from Chan, "... but I've never told him about the boy."

A stretch of silence drifted over the two.

"Could you maybe teach me how to make music?" Jisung asked shyly.

"Yeah I-" Chan began.

At that time, Changbin walked in. Dressed in all black, Changbin looked really intimidating but he had the softest smile when he saw Chan and Jisung.

"Oh hi Jisung,"

"Good morning hyung," Jisung said bowing a little. Jisung easily gets anxious around new people and even though he knows Changbin, they only recently met.

"Jisung," Chan says averting Jisung's attention to him, "Yes I can teach you how to make music, but not today, Changbin and I have some work to do with a song."

"That's ok, thank you." Jisung responded. He got out of his chair and let Changbin sit down.

"I'm going to look around a little more." Jisung said as he gathered his backpack and started heading for the door. Changbin and Chan waved as Jisung slipped through he door.

Jisung walked around to the other side of the second floor looking at more classrooms.

The sun began rising and sunlight started to illuminate the rooms.

Jisung was rushing and peeking in all the rooms until he saw a figure slumped in one of the classrooms.

A boy was sitting in a chair, his face sat on the windowsill looking towards the ocean.

Even though the boy's back was facing Jisung, Jisung knew who it was. The distinctive light brown hair of one troubled student belonged to one boy, Minho.

Like out of an anime, the room was sun kissed and streaks of golden sunlight streamed through the windows.

Jisung quietly walked onto the room. The wooden floorboards creaked in places as Jisung walked to Minho.

_Why do things creak so much here? I thought this place was suppose to be fancy._

The air near the window was cool and when Jisung looked at Minho he swore the lips on the boy's face were turning blue.

When he looked closer, Jisung noticed that Minho's lip was cracked and a thin layer of blood had crusted over the cut.When he looked closer at the boy's eye, he saw a bruise that was hidden behind what Jisung believed was makeup.

Minho had done a good job of covering it up, no one would notice the bruise unless they were as close to him as Jisung was.

Jisung sat backwards on the seat in front of Minho's and slowly brought his hand up, lightly touching Minho's face with he back of his fingers. His skin was icy cold but soft.

It was maybe 6:15 in the morning, _did he stay here over night?_ Jisung thought seeing as it wasn't uncommon for students to accidentally fall asleep at school.

Jisung brushed the thought away and brought his attention back to his hand. Minho, still asleep, nuzzled his face towards jisung's warm hand.

Jisung's heart speed up and his face began to flush red. He didn't know what to do so he flipped his hand so his palm rested under Minho's cheek.

Jisung felt his hand became colder as the temperature of Minho's cold cheek transferred to Jisung. Which means Minho's face was feeling warmer.

With his other hand Jisung placed it on Minho's other cheek. He began to have flashbacks to the the moment in the boy's bathroom when he held Minho's face.

What was he going to say back there to Minho? He couldn't remember why he held his face back then. A pain deep in Jisung started to spread over him. His muscles ached and his chest felt heavy. But when Jisung looked down at Minho he swore he saw a tear form in the corner of the boy's eye.

It seemed that anytime Jisung was around him he found the boy crying or on the verge of tears. Why though?

With his other hand, Jisung reached over and wiped the tear away rom Minho's eye as it began to fall down his cheek.

He was so close to Minho, his heart began to beat faster and Jisung knew he was bushing hard. Luckily Minho was asleep and couldn't see his face.

Jisung leaned in and placed a light kiss on Minho's forehead.

_Bu bump_

Jisung quickly pulls away, the sound of his heart still loud in his ears.

 _Wh- what was that? I'm an idiot_ , Jisung thought to himself, internally smacking himself.

He slid Minho's backpack under his head so he could remove his hand from under Minho's cheek. Jisung quietly left the room

Avoiding the noisy floor boards, Jisung quietly left the room turning back once to look at the sleeping boy. Jisung exited and any trace of him vanished.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

The sun now high in the sky shown down on the students below. Jisung was in PE class with Seungmin and neither of them enjoyed the activity.

The class was playing tennis and the court was they were on were 10 degrees warmer than the actual weather.

Seungmin and Jisung sat together underneath an umbrella. They took their 10 min break before they were supposed to be called back to the court.

"This heat is killing me," Seungmin said sitting down under the umbrella. "I don't understand how it's winter yet the sun is beating down like this." Seungmin covered his face with the tennis hat he wore. Jisung joined him under the umbrella, not saying a word.

"Hey Jisung."

Jisung's head snaps up and looks at Seungim.

"Hm?" was all Jisung repsonded with.

"You've been zoning out since class started. Are you ok?"

"I have?"

"A ball came straight at you and you didn't even move. It even hit you in the arm."

"Oh I'm sorry," Jisung said blankly.

"I mean you don't have to apologize to me, it's your body getting beat up." Seungmin says in a playful voice.

"Seungmin?" Jisung says in a serious tone.

"What's wrong, you're scaring me."

"Is it normal for someone's heart rate to quicken when you're around people?"

"Seugnmin leaned against his hands which rested on the racket handle. "Hmm interesting question. Are you anxious or nervous around people or groups of people?"

"I actually do get anxious around people I don't know," Jisung says staring off, but he shakes his head and brings his attention back to Seungmin. "But what if it's only around a certain person?"

"Oh?" Seugmin raised one eyebrow and smirking at Jisung. "If it's around a particular someone else then you might like them."

Jisung's mind did parkour around itself as he tried to comprehend what he was hearing.

"Do you feel yourself blushing when you're around them?" Seungmin nudges Jisung with the edge of his racket. "Does your heart skip a beat when with them?"Seungmin teased.

"Uuummmmm..."

"The silence I'm going to take as a yes."

"Hey! You can just assume that!" Jisung snapped at Seungmin.

Seungmin just laughed at Jisung. He was so cute when he pouted.

"But am I wrong?" Seungmin said smiling at Jisung.

"Wha- I mean no, not really," Jisung was getting embarrassed now trying to hide himself behind his racket.

"I'm curious who this girl is, I mean I don't think I've seen you talk to anyone besides Felix and Hyunjin. "

"Well... Um the thing is it's not a girl."

Seungmin spit out the water he was drinking, his attention was now fully on Jisung. He shot up and looked right at Jisung.

"Hey that was disgusting, wipe your mouth."

"It's a boy then?!"

"Keep it down will ya?" Jisung looked around nervously. "I guess."

"What do you mean 'I guess' it's either a yes or no."

"ok yes, I get anxious around a boy," he said between his teeth.

"Do I know them? Are they in our group?" Seungmin asked in a quieter tone. He didn't break eye contact with Jisung.

"I don't think you know them well, so no they aren't in our group." 

At this Seungmin relaxed his shoulders. Jisung could tell he was tense in that moment.

"Seungmin, Jisung, time to get back on the court." yelled the tennis teacher.

"You can tell me more about this mystery boy later," Seungmin said cheerfully, his mood improving ten times than that of before.

Jisung silently thanked Seungmin for not asking him who this mysterious boy was.

The two returned to the scorching court to play a round of doubles. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi thank you for reading! My writing style has sort of changed since I wrote this chapter in early August but I hope the story gets more interesting :)


	4. Inked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I'm back with the next chapter of Parallel Lines, I hope you enjoy it :D  
> And thank you to my beta, Paige

Every Monday morning Jisung's mom would take him to school early, thinking he was studying at the library but in reality, he was in the recording studio with Chan and Changbin. The two hyungs took him in and taught him how to produce music and rap. Surprisingly Jisung was a natural at rapping, the syllables gracefully flowed from his mouth at every beat. What was most surprising was Jisung's singing, a beautiful voice capable of hitting some of the highest notes for males. He secretly produced music with Chan and Changbin, knowing that if his mom found out, she would ban him from ever stepping foot in the booth again.

After practicing with Chan and Changbin, Jisung would discreetly check that one classroom on the other side of the second floor to see if Minho was there, but he never found the brown-haired boy there again. Jisung would be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed, he just wanted to check on him and see if he was feeling better, _I only want to make sure his injuries from Day6 were healing, that's all_ , Jisung thought to himself. He wanted to ask Minho about the bruises that he had on his face the day Jisung saw him in the classroom, but refrained from doing so for that would reveal the fact he saw Minho sleeping that day.

One early Tuesday morning on his way to the library, Jisung heard the squeaking of shoes on a wooden floor and the faint sound of music being played. He followed his ears to a dance room on the west wing of the school (yeah the school be that big). Upon approaching the door, Jisung could see s sliver of light coming from the room, it was cracked a bit and when he looked inside Jisung saw the most graceful person he's ever seen in the center of the room; a person, wearing a jacket that covered their head and obscured Jisung's view of their face, was dancing to a slow song, their movements mirrored the tone of the music. So graceful the person was, and Jisung had never seen anyone or anything move with such passion and sorrow before. The fluid movements captured every emotion the person held and Jisung felt himself tear up at the sight. Pain, confusion, hate, fear, love all guided the person's motions.

Jisung stood at the door and watched as the next song came on, the music was a complete 180 of the prior one and a hardcore EDM song come on. The hooded figure's movements changed to match the tempo - sharp, crisp movements expended from them. Although the song was different, Jisung still saw and felt the passion and emotions with every movement they did. rage, resentment, and tenacity filled the room, Jisung felt the atmosphere change when they danced.

Eventually the song ended and the music stopped, the hooded figure panted and wiped sweat from their forehead. Jisung was still there, watching as the figure began pulling their jacket off of themself. He sucked in and held his breath, waiting to see who this mysterious being was.

Jisung's eyes widened with shock as the hooded figure revealed themself to be none other than Lee Minho. He was entranced, the building blocks of Jisung's emotions suddenly clicking into place. The shock of finding out who the dancer was had forced Jisung to stumble back, causing a ruckus. Minho suddenly turned towards the door upon hearing the sound, but when he walked over to open it to see what was making the noise, Jisung had long fled the scene.

For the rest of the day Jisung never spoke of what he saw that morning to his friends, he didn't see Minho again and maybe that was ok. Jisung's feeling towards the older boy conflicted him, he felt a longing for the older boy but couldn't make any sense of them because he's barely talked to Minho. Jisung didn't want to scare the older male with his random infatuation, he just wanted to be friends that's all, right?

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

"Hey you guys want to go to a party this Friday after school?" Felix offered the next day at lunch.

Hyunjin raised an eyebrow at his friend who he knows is a party goer, "a party? Who's party is it?"

"I'm actually not sure, but I heard it's massive and almost the whole school is going. You can bring as many people as you want."

"This sounds like an awful idea, who the hell would allow this?" Seungmin said not even raising his head.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad, Chan's even letting me go and he wouldn't let me if it wasn't safe," Felix whined back.

"You're taking safety advice from someone who accidentally jumped into the shallow end of a pool and almost ended up in the emergency room?" Seungmin said, raising his head and gave Felix the _oh really?_ look.

"Eh? How does the pool incident relate to the safety of the party?"

"It doesn't, I just wanted to mention it."

Chan hid his face in his hands embarrassed at the mention of his incident.

Despite Seungmin's skepticism to the party, Felix made convincing points and the boys agreed to go to the party together and watch over each other.

Jisung's last class was math, block 7, and he often found himself staring at the ticking clock waiting to be let out. Jisung sat in the front row at the end and no one sat on the other side despite there always being a vacant seat. The class was dead silent as the teacher taught the lesson but no one was paying attention; 20 minutes into the lesson, the teacher was having none of it and called on a random victim.

"If none of you can answer the question on limits then what do you guys know? Mark, what's the definition of a point?

Poor Mark snapped awake and looked wide-eyed at the class as everyone stared at him, "umm.."

The boy next to him whispered something to him and Mark repeated the response without hesitation, "17, the answer is 17."

The class erupted in laughter and Jisung was surprised to see that Mark also laughed along too, the only one who didn't was the teacher who looked like steam was coming from their ears.

"Haechan, if you're so smart then what is the definition of a perpendicular line?

Haechan was taken back prom suddenly being put on the spot but managed to string a somewhat coherent response, "so a perpendicular line is like these two lines that cross at a point and it has angles that are 90ºs."

Satisfied with the answer, the teacher was about to call on his next victim when the classroom door opened. The entire class, including Jisung, looked towards the noise, and stepping into the math class was Lee Minho.

"Ah Lee," the teacher looked at the roster that was on his desk, "Know, Lee Know, glad you could finally make an appearance," he said sarcastically. "You're just in time for a small pop quiz on some basic algebraic terminology, could you define for me what parallel lines are?"

Jisung was intensely staring at the older boy, as was the entire room, but he held his breath waiting for Minho's response.

"Parallel lines are typically two straight lines equal distances apart and so their paths will never cross," Minho said almost in a dismayed tone.

"Anything else more specific to your definition?" The teacher prompted, but Minho refused.

"No that's all."

"Fine, please take the seat right there next to Jisung," the teacher pointed to the vacant seat beside Jisung. Without thinking Jisung kinda stuck his hand up halfway to indicate where he was.

Minho made his way to the desk and sat down, settling in almost instantly.

About 5 min later already half the class was back asleep as Jisung would have been too if Minho wasn't sitting just 5 feet away from him. Out of the corner of his eye, Jisung looked over to Minho, he watched as the boy scribbled notes on a piece of graph paper. Jisung was pretty impressed that Minho took the time to take notes when everyone else, well.. didn't.

AS Jisung was staring, Minho turned towards him causing Jisung to whip his head forward hoping the boy didn't catch him staring.

"Do you have an eraser I can borrow?," Minho whispered.

"Yeah," Jisung said a little too enthusiastically. He scrambled to get his pencil case out of his backpack and awkwardly fumbled with an eraser before successfully handing it off to Minho.

"Thanks," was all Minho said.

Jisung thought he picked up a hint of shyness in the older boy's 'thanks' but didn't want to get his hopes up so Jisung brushed it off.

"Can I borrow it for the rest of the class? "

"You can keep it if you want," Jisung said too eager for his own good.

Minho didn't seem to mind and even smiled at Jisung, "thanks."

"Minho," Jisung whispered right after, "do you maybe want to go to a party this Friday?" Jisung didn't think it was too much to invite Minho to the party seeing as how half the school was already going.

"A party? I don't know, I never really go to parties and I wouldn't know anyone."

"You know me! I'm going with some friends so you'll at least know me," Jisung said hitting Minho with a :] smile.

Minho let out a light laugh and Jisung swore he heard Minho whisper _cute,_ "sure I'll go," he agreed.

Jisung felt himself bloom with excitement and tried to keep it from showing, he scribbled the address on the corner of Minho's math notes and drew a cute little cat doodle next to it, "I'll see you there."

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Jisung and his dad were heading back from his cram school classes, the car ride was dead silent, finally, his dad sparked a conversation.

"Are you doing anything fun this weekend? You always just do homework and it worries me."

"Why do you care?" Jisung didn't mean to make it sound so hostile, he was genuinely curious why his dad was paying so much attention to him lately.

"I know I wasn't very present for your earlier childhood so I want to take this opportunity to be a better father to you."

Jisung's parents were older than the standard parents to kids his age, his dad took an early retirement after being injured while in location. Jisung's mom was now the one to take jobs overseas and Jisung was forced to spend more time with his dad as they switched roles. Not that Jisung minded the questions from his dad, he just wasn't used to being asked how he was.

"I actually was thinking of going to a party this weekend with some friends from school."

"That sounds like a lot of fun, you know I used to be very popular at my high school parties."

Jisung began to laugh, having never thought of his dad as a big partier.

"Who's throwing the party?"

"Umm, I don't know the actual person, but I'm going with a group and we're going to all look after each other; I promise to be safe," Jisung said trying to justify the party but it ended up sounding more suspicious.

His dad let out a light laugh, "don't worry I trust you'll have good judgment. It'll be a different story with your mom."

"I was also planning on sleeping over at Felix and Chan's house afterward, you think mom will be ok with that?"

"Hmm," his dad pondered, "how about this, you're doing a project with Felix all afternoon and just tell your mom that?"

"Are you telling me to lie to mom?"

"Look, you and me both know she wouldn't let you go, you need to live a little and not be cooped up in the house studying. I'll admit I'm scared of what she might do to you and me if she found out I'm letting you go to a party."

Jisung smiled, feeling a small spark of connection with his dad. He was glad he finally had someone on his side.

At home Jisung his dad and mom ate dinner together, apart from the occasional questions about schoolwork and grades from his mom, it was silent.

"Mother, father, may I be excused?"

"You hardly touched your vegetables honey, you may not leave until you finish them."

Jisung was about to whine when his dad spoke up, "if you eat your vegetables you can have some cheesecake."

"Dear don't spoil him like that, he'll learn to only get things done if we bribe him with food."

"Ok!" Jisung said and began eating the vegetables on his plate.

Jisung was then excused and he headed to his room. Flinging himself onto his bed, Jisung stuck his hand behind his headboard and pulled out a notebook with leather covering. The spine was slightly tearing at the seems from years of opening and closing it. The thick book held years of memories, Jisung write in it most days, sometimes giving a brief explanation of how he was doing or what happened that day to full out rants about what ticked him off or made him happy. 

He sat in bed and write in the notebook:

_November 3, XXXX_

_This morning I, Chan, and Changbin hyung recorded for the first time a part of our new song and I'm also learning how to write lyrics myself._

_At lunch, Felix flung a piece of kimchi at Changbin and hyung wasn't too happy about it. Changbin tried to murder him but Chan wouldn't let him. Felix also brought up a party that's happening in a few days and so that's something to look forwards to._

_Jeongin and I went to the beach during our free period and ate some food from a nearby convenience store. We talked about classes, sports, our favorite hyung to tease, and what plans we had for the future. It was the first time opening up to someone about how little I knew about my future despite being a straight-A student._

_As always math class started out boring but surprisingly Minho showed up._ I̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶a̶n̶t̶l̶y̶ m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶t̶h̶ ̶1̶0̶x̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶f̶u̶n̶.̶ _Actually 0 times 10 is still zero. Having Minho in class made math a little bit more bearable. I even invited him to the party Felix mentioned and he actually agreed to go!!!_

_Since seeing Minho yesterday in the morning, I've wanted to talk to him but I never could figure out what to say. I mean the last thing he remembers me doing was holding him in the boys bathroom a few weeks ago and by god, I wish that wasn't the first impression I had on him. I'm glad he agreed to go to the party though, maybe I'll have the guts to have a proper conversation with him._

As Jisung wrote the room to his door swung open and his mom came in holding a plate of cheesecake. After hearing the door open Jisung tossed his notebook onto the floor on the side hidden from view from the doorway.

"Here honey your father reminded me that you could have some cheesecake. Don't forget to bring the plate down."

Before Jisung could thank his mom, she left, closing the door behind her.

Jisung fetched his notebook from the ground and opened it to the page it had landed on.

_December 29, XXXX_

The entry was from years ago, Jisung was maybe 6 or 7 at the time and his handwriting was incredulous. He cringed at the poorly written letters and the frequent spelling mistakes.

(A/N I was going to write as 7 year old Ji but I couldn't bring myself to spell almost everything wrong... so many red lines T-T)

_December 29, XXXX_

_Today I played at the park and swung on the swings. There were some other kids there and I tried playing with them but they didn't seem to want to. When I was playing on the ladder I fell. It wasn't too high but I landed on another kid. He wasn't happy about it but I said I was sorry. He then was just asking if I was ok and if I scratched anything but I was fine. We ended up playing together for a bit before I had to go back home._

It was a short entry, but Jisung didn't expect much from a 7 year old. Jisung looked to the line below that had the next entry.

_January 4, XXXX_

_Mother took me back to the same park and I met the boy again. We started playing some more and we played on the swings, he was a bit older and taller than me so I had a hard time pushing him. He was really nice and we planned on meeting at the park again._

Jisung looked down to the next few lines to see the continuation.

_January 8, XXXX_

_Today I went to the park and my friend brought lollipops, he gave one to me and we sat under the bridge at the playground to eat them together. He was so nice today, he even patted my head right before leaving with his mother._

_January 12, XXXX_

_I stupidly fell off the climbing wall at the park today, which mother wasn't too happy to hear about afterward, so I was sitting in the plastic tunnel. I had landed on my wrist so I couldn't do any climbing, I just sat in the tunnel being sad. My friend found me and told me he was worried that I didn't come today to play. He pouted and I laughed at him. He didn't like that I did but he was funny so that's why. Instead of playing, we walked around a pond and he kept on telling me to hold his hand so I wouldn't hurt it more. He's a strange boy._

_January 16, XXXX_

_Today his father brought him, we played by the pond and tried to catch the minnows but they were too fast. This time he ruffled my hair and told me I was cute. I told him only animals are called cute like dogs and cats. He then told me I was a cute squirrel so I would accept it. A man came up to us and took my friend away, I’m guessing the man was his father. Maybe they had somewhere to go, but I didn't get to say bye. After my bath today I tried ruffling my hair but it wasn't the same._

_January 17, XXXX_

_I went to the park today but my new friend wasn't there._

_Mother took me to an Italian restaurant for the first time and the pasta was good. I ate cheesecake and..._

Jisung skipped that entry.

_January 21, XXXX_

_Today at the park my friend was there and I was really excited because he hadn't come for the last few days. But he didn't seem very happy to see me. He pretended not to see me waving at him. I walked up behind him and I saw a dark mark on his arm. I tried to hold his hand because that's what he did to me when I felt bad but when I did touch his hand he turned and pushed me. I ran away and told mother I wanted to leave._

_January 28, XXXX_

_I went to the park again after a week to see if my friend was going to be there. I even brought some candy from my secret stash, but he wasn't there. I left a lollipop underneath the bridge I hope he finds it._

_January 29, XXXX_

_I went back today and the lollipop was still there. I'm sad now and I wish I had my friend back._

Jisung turned the page expecting to see the next entry but nothing about the boy filled any of the proceeding entries. Jisung frantically flipped through pages looking for an entry that would give some closure to the mysterious boy at the park. Sadly it seemed like Jisung never went back to the park or at least never wrote about being there.

"What the heck," Jisung said out loud, "that can't be it." Jisung flipped through the pages of the notebook scanning each entry for any sign of a continuation of this story, he scanned until he started seeing entries from middle school which he knew would have nothing. Jisung slumped back into his bed with defeat. "I didn't even write down his name?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and Kudos are appreciated and they inspire me to write more :)


	5. Lightly Like Almonds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi thank you for being patient with the next chapter of this fic. I'd like to dedicate the chapter to Katherina_0613 who keeps me on my toes and motivates me to write the next chapter, lol >o<
> 
> Giant thanks to Paige my beta reader, love you girl!!

"Bye mother," Jisung says as he's getting out of the car, "don't forget I'm staying at Felix and Chan's house tonight cause we have a project due next week," Jisung tried to say in his most convincing tone. He didn't exactly lie, he does have a project with Felix due next week, but a pang of guilt rose in his voice because he kind of left out the part about the party.

"Alright honey, don't forget to text me if you want to come home." And with a nod, Jisung sent his mom off and he stood at the front gates of the academy.

It was only 6:00 and he still had time to kill before any of his friends came to school. Jisung decided to take the opportunity to sneak into that one classroom that he saw Minho fall asleep in. Making his way to the second floor, Jisung made sure no one was around - which was pretty easy considering barely anyone was at school at this hour.

Upon arriving at the classroom, gold light filtering through the windows, Jisung's prompt posture slumped seeing as that Minho was not there. He walked to the desk he had seen Minho rest in weeks before, brushing his hands across the desks as he passed them.

As he approached what he assumed was Minho's desk, he spotted grooves etched into the surface of the desk.

_Loser_

_killer_

_gay boy_

_murderer_

_no one likes you_

_just die already_

Jisung traces his finger through the letters carved on the desk, a tear falling from his eye. Jisung knew Minho was bullied but he didn't know it was this bad. He also didn’t expect himself to feel so bad for him, Jisung knew he wasn’t one to pay much attention to individuals like this. 

_Were these recent?_ Jisung thinks, seeing fresh chips peel away as Jisung touched the grooves. Minho seemed so kind, and so Jisung couldn't understand what he could have done to deserve this kind of harassment.

Dabbing the tears from his eyes with the bottom of his shirt, Jisung took his backpack off and hoisted it onto the desk, laying it flat. He settled himself in the seat, closing his eyes for a brief moment. _If only he didn't bear all this himself,_ he thought, _if only he would ask for help._

⚘

Ambient noises quickly filter into Jisung's mind as he stirred awake. 

"Hey kid you're not in this class," an older boy rudely yelled at Jisung.

Barely registering what was going on Jisung snapped awake, "oh I'm so sorry." He had fallen asleep and the first class of the day was starting.

"You must be new or else you wouldn't have sat there. Just letting you know, that's Lee Know's seat so you might want to wash yourself off else the blood of his victims will get on you," the boy started seriously but then his tone turned to snicker, he then left to his seat laughing.

Without bothering to figure out whether the boy was making fun of him, Jisung left the room; cursing the boy under his breath. 

Jisung didn't realize at first but there was a hoodie draped over his shoulders and without thinking he had taken it. It was soft from what Jisung assumed was from years of use and it smelled lightly of almonds. He didn't even think almonds had a scent until now but it smelled nice. Jisung cringed at the bright yellow because it totally went against his usual all black attire. 

In the hallway Jisung stopped to fully put the hoodie on, it was slightly bigger than what he would usually wear but he actually liked the feeling of feeling smaller inside it. It felt like a hug, a large big hug kind of like the ones Chan would give him when he got something correct when rapping - he'll have to thank his hyung later; and so, Jisung wore it as he made his way to his first class of the day, P.E. 

⚘

Jisung and Seungmin lounged by the Olympic sized pool, Jisung napped and Seungmin read a book. Several girls from their class passed by on their way to the shallow end of the pool, laughing and jumping around and having fun during the P.E lounge period. 

Jisung turned to Seungmin, "not interested in any of those girls," he said jokingly.

"Not at all," Seungmin bluntly said, not raising his head up from his book. 

Jisung wasn't expecting such a straight-forward answer, "their laughs were kind of cute," Jisung said, teasing Seungmin again for a better response. 

"I'm actually not into girls," Seungmin deadpanned. 

Jisung sat up slowly from his chair, "oh," was all he responded with.

"Are you uncomfortable by that?" Seungmin finally peeling his eyes off his book to look at Jisung in the eyes. His stare bore holes into Jisung, yet held no malice. 

"No, no that's not it, I was just not expecting that response," Jisung fidgeted a bit but from being uncomfortable but because he was curious. "Do people ever bully you for it?" Jisung kept his voice slightly above a whisper, Seungmin almost missed his hyung's question.

"Hm, no not really. Sure some slurs are thrown at me from rude upperclassmen but I just learned to ignore them. Plus all I need is our solid friend group to accept me to be happy, well, and also my parents, they're chill too. 

"Oh well that's very nice," Jisung said, giving his friend a genuine smile, his mouth formed a heart shape because he was genuinely happy for Seungmin's happiness.

Both feeling more relaxed, they enjoyed the time at the poolside in each other's silent company.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

In his second to last class of the day, Jisung sat in the library trying to cram some studying right before his math quiz that was next period. For a quiz, it was an unfairly large portion of this semester's grade and he was unfortunately not cramming as much as before since his dad started taking him around places. 

The father and son would usually head in the direction of the cram school but end up in the seaside plaza near the school. Jisung honestly thanked his lucky star that his dad was willing to let him skip the late night school because Jisung thought he would go insane if he had to go through another 4 years of it. 

Jisung tapped his pencil against the top of his notebook unable to absorb the formulas presented on the page. He sunk in his seat in defeat, bringing the sleeves of the hoodie over his hands to make bright yellow sweater paws. Jisung smushed his face into the paws and rubbed his face, trying to awaken any absolute focus left in him; however, the smell of almonds filled his mind. The scent did calm him down a bit and Jisung signed, releasing the tension he had built up. 

When he looked up, Jisung almost missed it. He was so quick, Jisung spotted Chan exiting the library. 

"Channie hyung," Jisung called out, forgetting he was in a library.

Everyone in the vicinity turned to Jisung and collectively shushed him. Chan turned when he heard Jisung call and he too was met with people staring at him. 

He quickly walked up to Jisung, "Jisung what was that for?" Chan was whispering but his voice was full of strain.

"Sorry hyung I thought you wouldn't have heard me if I didn't yell. Anyway, were you here this morning? I fell asleep and I woke up right before school started."

"Yeah I was here this morning, I thought you were going to be in the recording studio but I found you asleep in one of the second story classrooms."

"Why didn't you wake me up? Don't we have to have two recordings done by the end of the month?"

"You looked so peaceful I couldn't bring myself to wake you up. Your cheeks were so puffy and you looked like a quokka" Chan cooed at Jisung. 

"I'm sorry, a what?" 

"Oh it's a cute animal that lives in Australia. Anyways, don't worry about the recordings. If we stick to our regular Monday schedule we'll get it done by the end of the month."

Jisung nodded and Chan started heading for the library exit.

"Oh wait," Jisung called out before Chan got too far, "here thanks for lending me the hoodie," Jisung stood up and took off the yellow hoodie he was wearing, pushing it towards Chan and ushering him to take it.

"What are you doing mate, I don't own a hoodie that colorful."

It took a moment but Chan was right, he never wore anything besides the black version of the school uniform, and even on free dress days he still chose to wear black. 

"Wait you didn't put this hoodie on me this morning?"

"Sorry that wasn't me, I saw you this morning but didn't go into the classroom. But it's a sick hoodie, limited edition of the _XX_ spring collection."

Chan told Jisung he really had to get going and Jisung sent him off, not wanting to take up any more of his hyung's time. 

"Don't forget I'm coming over after school to work on the project with Felix."

"Don't worry I didn't forget, I'm driving half the group to the party anyways."

With 10 min left before the period ends, Jisung didn't feel like studying anymore. He was too confused about Chan not being the owner of the hoodie and sort of felt weirded out by the fact. 

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Before heading up to the second story for his math class, as the quiz that awaits him, Jisung stops by his locker. He opens it up just to end up staring blankly inside it. 

(A/N: I do this with my fridge when I'm bored and don't want to do homework)

Jisung hadn't put the hoodie back on since taking it off for Chan, and so he sloppily chucked it into his locker and took out the old grey hoodie that he kept in there. After slipping it on Jisung suddenly turned grumpy at his appearance. He couldn't see himself but he felt grouchy almost immediately after putting the grey hoodie on. It felt cold and tight, constricting his movements as it tugged against his shoulders. Jisung hadn't noticed how comfortable he felt in the yellow hoodie, but he felt uncomfortable wearing it now knowing it wasn't Chan's. He didn't know who would have lent him the hoodie.

Slamming his locker shut, Jisung sauntered up the stairs but a pang of guilt hit him as he arrived at the top. He grunted and quickly turned to sprint downstairs to his locker. He undoes the lock and swings the locker door open. 

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Jisung mutters as he picks up the yellow hoodie from the bottom of his locker. He doesn't have time to put it on so he neatly hangs it on the hook on the side of his locker, brushing off the eraser shavings that lingered on the soft material. 

Even if Jisung doesn't know who's hoodie it was, he still couldn't treat it like dirt. Someone did not graciously lend him their limited edition of XX Spring collection just for Jisung to treat it like dirt. 

Jisung sprinted back up to the second story, entering his math class knowing he is a few minutes late. 

"Han Jisung, please take this detention slip and then sit down and begin your quiz," his teacher extended his arm out, holding a yellow slip. 

Jisung turned his attention from his professor and locked eyes with the boy who sat one seat from his own, Minho was looking straight at him with a curious look. Jisung couldn't help but smile and he saw the older boy's gaze shoot down to his paper. 

"Mr. Han, today would be nice." 

Jisung quickly grabbed the slip out of his teacher's hand and went to settle in his seat and begin the quiz. 

The quiz was supposed to be short, no more than 20 min, but already Jisung struggles with the first question. _When the fuck we learn about the unit circle?_ Jisung thinks to himself.

Mid-way through the quiz Jisung feels a tap on his shoulder, to his surprise Minho was trying to get his attention. Jisung looked at Minho and then to his other side to see if Minho wanted him to get someone else's attention.

"No no, you. I want to talk to you," Minho said sensing that Jisung was a little confused.

"Me?"

Minho extended his hand to show the eraser that Jisung had lent him in a previous class, "I want to give this back to you," he said in a whisper.

"Oh it's fine, please you can keep it," Jisung said, shrinking slightly out of embarrassment, he was sure his face was beginning to turn red. 

"But...," Minho began to say before he was interrupted by the teacher.

"Lee Know, what do you think you're doing, cheating on the final quiz of the semester?"

Jisung watched as Minho froze like a deer in the headlights, eyes wide and doe like. All the students were now looking at him, soft murmurs began circulating through the room.

Without thinking much Jisung stood up, facing front, and prompt, "Sorry it was my fault," Jisung apologized with a 90º bow. "You know I just really wanted..." Jisung was being stumped by his own lies, "... mango?" he internally cringed at his words. _What has gotten into me?_ He thought to himself, never before has he ever tried covering up for someone, let alone a boy he barely knows.

The class began to snicker at Jisung's words and soon the class began to all laugh. They weren't loud but loud enough to have to make the teacher shut them up. 

"Hey now settle down and finish your quizzes, unless... does this mean you all are done?" 

Immediately the room quieted down and the sound of pencils on paper filled the room. 

Facing back to Jisung and Minho, "Han, I know it wasn't you but I'm still disappointed, Lee Know, come and take this detention slip."

Jisung couldn't help but watch remorsefully as Minho accepted the yellow slip. He didn't do anything wrong, but Jisung felt like the situation just wasn't fair to Minho. 

"Please turn in your quizzes as they are and both of you go stand outside until the rest of the class is done with theirs."

To be fair, Jisung actually was glad he didn't have to sit for another 10 minutes, it wasn't like he was going to magically know how to use the trigonometric functions in the last few minutes. So Jisung turns in his blank quiz and walks towards the door to stand outside, he hesitates a moment to allow Minho to turn his quiz in but as soon as Minho turns to start walking too, Jisung speeds up and he's out the door before anything notices.

Minho sat against the wall outside the classroom while Jisung rested against the accented railing across from him, the silence was stretching on and Jisung could tell Minho was restless. Minho shivered a bit from the contact with the cool ground.

"Hey, are you cold?" 

Minho doesn't look up.

"Minho, hello?" Jisung tries again

Minho snaps his head up with wide eyes before his expression falls into a relaxed one, "oh you're talking to me?"

 _Boi I stg_ \- "yes, you're the only one here," Jisung said, suppressing his wtf expression. "Are you cold?" Jisung reiterated.

"Oh no, I'll be fine but thanks for asking," Minho squeaked out.

 _Damn this man needs more confidence,_ Jisung thought to himself. " I have another hoodie in my locker, it's a bit on the bright side but it keeps warm," Jisung began to head towards the staircase to go grab the hoodie from his locker but Minho interjected.

"No! it's fine, yellow isn't really my style," Minho lied.

"Fine but here take mine then," Jisung took off his grey hoodie and held it out for Minho. 

Because Minho was still refusing to keep warm, he took things into his own hands. Pushing the hoodie over Minho's head was the easy part, Jisung took the older boy by surprise by launching himself at Minho who was still crouched on the ground.

The confused Minho threw his body back in the attempt to evade the younger one, but was unfortunately caught by Jisung, trapping his head in the hoodie. The two tumbled on the floor and Jisung took the opportunity to sling his leg across Minho's torso, essentially pinning the latter with his leg.

Jisung worked on pulling the head of the hoodie down so Minho could breathe, the rest of the hoodie was bunched up around the latter's elbows. 

When Minho finally did catch a breath of air he cursed at Jisung, but the boy knew he held no malice in his words, instead he laughed and smiled at Minho. At the same time, Minho's hand unintentionally found its way to Jisung's waist, hanging there for a few moments.

After Jisung's laugh died down he turned his face towards Minho, "you still coming to the party," his words thinned out once he saw Minho staring intently at Jisung.

Minho's mouth was slightly parted, and he whispered a "yes," his breath warm on Jisung's cheek.

Jisung couldn't help but notice his considerably full lips. When he looked up at Minho's face, he saw beautifully almond colored eyes staring back at him. Jisung felt Minho's grip on his waist stiffen and he sucked in a short breath and held it.

At that moment the door of their math class opened and the teacher, staring acutely at the two, beckoned them back into class. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't intend to write an entire chapter on the school day, I thought I was gonna start get to the party in this chapter but the story began to write itself. At this rate I'll have way more words than I intended this to be - but it's honestly exciting!  
> Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next update - I promise to get to the party scenes 😂


	6. Placid Waters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm so sorry it's been forever since the last chapter but it's here now! I'm still so new at writing ff and being an actual writer so I made the mistake of publishing the series without writing a bulk of it before hand, lol. Anyways, It's Thanksgiving here and I'd like to say I'm incredibly thankful for those who read my work, y’all are literally the ones who keep me writing else I might have discontinued this a while back. Thank you all and I hope you enjoy this chapter, cause things get D.R.A.M.A.T.IC! Also as a warning, the chapter involves underage drinking and smoking and a pretty dangerous act at the end. So just a heads up :)  
> *also no beta for this one

"Felix you should have been there it was so embarrassing but like... I couldn't.. move. His eyes were just so doe-like," Jisung suddenly stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, "actually scratch that, you shouldn't have been there, you would have made fun of me."

"Hey, you don't know that for sure," Felix defended himself.

"Okay but if you _were_ there what would you do?"

"Hm, definitely clown you for it," Felix said without hesitation.

"Ugh, seeee I knew it," Jisung said letting out an exasperated sigh.

Jisung was walking to Felix's house, telling the young Aussie boy his embarrassing yet intriguing moment with Minho from earlier that day.

"Let me get this straight, you pinned this Minho kid to the ground and had a "moment" with him in the middle of the second story hall?"

"To be fair it was in the middle of the last period so there wasn't anyone to be embarrassed in front of, and second Minho is actually Lee Know. I didn't mention it, but on my first day I actually ran into him. And third, what are you insinuating when you say ‘moment’?" Jisung looked over at Felix with a skeptical eye.

"Wait hold up, you actually talk to Lee Know? Was he quiet like Changbin says or did he sucker punch you like a gang member?" 

“Hey, don’t try to change the subject, answer the question.”

“Hey, _you_ don’t try to change the subject, answer _my_ question,” Felix stressed, “did he punch you in the face or not?”

Jisung raised an eyebrow at Felix's frightening enthusiasm at the thought of him being punched. He signed in defeat, "for the record I could totally beat him in a fight, I may not have been in a supposed gang, but my old friends used to drag me into fights. No, _Minho,"_ Jisung stressed the boy's name, "is more like how Changbin described him as, he's quiet and seems to keep to himself."

"Minho, Lee Know, same thing.

*They practically sounded the same to the Australian native 

Jisung gave him a playful side stare, jokingly judging him.

"Well, what happened after?"

"We didn't really talk much after that, I was too embarrassed."

"I would be too if the teacher found me making out with someone on the ground right outside the classroom."

Jisung lightly hit Felix's shoulder, "I was not making out!"

Felix quickly dodged the second attempt at his shoulder, "the way you described the intense staring you had practically made it a makeout session… with the eyes," he pointed two small fingers at Jisung’s eyes.

Jisung grumbled a bit; however, didn't deny it, “is this how you respect your hyung?” 

“You’re older than me by one day! I bet it’s not even by a full day!”

“Hey, it’s still a day and I’m going to milk every last drop of it.”

“Fine,” Felix said exasperated, “what happened next… hyung?”

Feeling accomplished Jisung shyly responded, "we didn't talk, but at the end of the class he asked me if I wanted to go to the part with him an-"

"WHAT?" Felix burst out, cutting Jisung off, "he asked you to go to the giant party with him?" Felix was now a giggling mess, "I think he likes you."

Although Jisung liked the sound of having the brown-haired boy's attention, he thought against his friend's words, he couldn't imagine Minho liking him in that way, “what nonsense are you talking about?”

"I’m serious hyung, did you accept the invitation?"

"No, I told him I was already going with some friends."

"Dude why'd you do that? I mean I'm honored, but I think he wanted to go with you."

Jisung scoffed at Felix's words, unaware of how true they had been.

⚘ 

At Felix's house, Jisung made himself comfortable despite only having been there a few times prior. 

"Do you have the vegemite??" Jisung yelled from the couch that sat in the middle of the living room.

"Yep, we just got new ones sent from some family in Australia."

"Perfect," Jisung popped off the couch to raid Felix's cabinet. 

For the next few hours Jisung and Felix worked on their world history project while snacking on vegemite spread toast. Although there were bound to be snacks at the party, neither of them trusted the food there. 

At 7 the sun began to set and now both boys were restless as the party hung in the forefront of their minds.

Large parties like these only happen 2 or 3 times a year and are usually only JYP Academy students attended as they were considered "elite" parties; however, some students from YG, SM, and very rarely, Big Hit Academy make it through mutuals.

Jisung was excited because he used to hear stories about the large parties happening near JYP Academy and never imagined he would ever be invited to one. They're practically like the equivalent of a student orientation with how many people you meet and cliques form. 

Lucky for Jisung he already had a friend group and so he was really just going there for fun. 

"Shall we get ready?" Felix asked while putting away some project supplies.

"YES! I thought you'd never ask," and with that, Jisung went to the bathroom to change into his party clothes: dark grey loose sleeveless shirt and tight black leather pants; he debated wearing the leather jacket as well but thought he might come off too pretentious if he did. Instead he settled for the hoodie that was given to him at the beginning of the day, he threw his leather jacket on over it and BOOM he was party ready. 

Although the hoodie starkly contrasted his original outfit, Jisung had to admit it was the warmest article of clothing, and the January night seemed to only get colder. 

15 min later, Chan was stationed outside his house in a mini-van honking for Felix and Jisung to come out. The two boys climbed through the side door and were greeted by Changbin, Hyunjin, and Seungmin. 

"Ready?" Chan said from the driver's seat.

"Hell yeah!" The boys all yelled in unison.

As the mini-van drove through the early night, Jisung was offered to stand in the middle seat and stick his head up and out of the sunroof. 

As Jisung steadied himself on the soft seat below him, he peered out the sunroof, hands gripping the edge of the van. All he could hear was the wind blowing rapidly by his ears. To his right, the ocean gleaned with the reflection of a full moon and in the distance, he saw a lighthouse he had never noticed before. The piercing light cut through the night and every few seconds he felt the spotlight on him. 

With built up confidence, he steadied himself on the cushion below before rising to stick his entire upper body out of the sunroof. Jisung's eyes began to sting as the sharp wind attacked them; but despite biting back the dry tears, Jisung felt so alive, more alive than ever. Letting go of the edge of the mini-van he stretched his arms above his head, catching every bit of it as it came at full force, and shouted out into the night.

"Jisung careful!" Felix and Changbin both shouted, gripping the boy's leather jeans to keep him from falling out of the van. 

However much the two boys in the van shouted at Jisung, he couldn't hear - the wind was too powerful and drowned out their voices.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

After the exhilarating car ride, the group finally arrived at the party. It wasn't even 9:00 pm but there were already several red solo cups littering the front yard, teens kissing on the veranda, and at least 100 kids inside alone - the numbers will only increase from then on as JYP, SM, and YG parties were notorious for their ungodly hours of partying. 

The original plan was to stay as a group and watch over each other, but quickly, they got separated. Hyunjin was the first victim and was taken by some friends from YG Academy, Seungmin quickly followed after Hyunjin.

Chan was taken by some girls from their own academy to the dance floor, Jisung watched as he greeted almost everyone who came up to him to give a high-five or say hi. He watched in awe as it seemed Chan was popular amongst students from all three Academies. 

Felix ditched to game with some boys in the living room, and before he knew it, Jisung stood alone in the hallway between the kitchen and the living room. Deciding to explore the luxurious house the party was held at, Jisung slinked off to the back yard where, if even possible, more people were. 

The outside air felt heavy as smoke from several students vaping crossed Jisung's path, the smell of artificial cotton candy stung his nose and made him gag a little.

Half an hour later, despite not knowing anyone around him, Jisung found himself dancing on the outdoor dance floor. Sure the confidence might have come from the spiked soda he had earlier, but Jisung was still sober enough to remember the thrill of the night the next day - or at least he thinks so. 

He danced to the Kpop songs that played over the booming speakers, acing the moves perfectly to Twice's Dance the Night Away. _Guess those hours of learning the dance in my room paid off_.

Across the pool, Jisung somehow managed to spot Felix, his little Aussie friend was playing what Jisung assumed was beer pong. He stumbled over to the ping-pong table to grab Felix's attention.

"Yongbokie!" Jisung shouted, draping himself over his friend's shoulder.

"Oh wow, Jisung are you ok? Are you drunk?" Felix's gaze turned from happy to worried in an instant. 

"Oh no, no I'm fine," Jisung slipped off of Felix's falling back a bit before giving Felix his most convincing ' _sober_ ' look, "no need to worry about me."

Felix raised his eyebrow, unconvinced.

"Wait where's Jeongin? Did he come?"

"Oh, no he didn't end up coming. His parents didn't allow him after they found out that Day6 was hosting the party."

"Oh that's good," Jisung said happily, knowing Jeongin was safe. A few seconds passed before Felix's words hit him, immediately the face of a particular brown-haired boy flashed in his mind. How could he have been so studpid as to forget something so important? 

"You said Day6?!" Jisung was in a panic at this point, but before Felix could respond to his question, he was gone, half sprinting half wobbling across the lawn beside the pool. Jisung hauled himself indoors and looked frantically around the crowded room. _No, too crowded here_ , he thought to himself, _too crowded_.

Jisung made his way upstairs, careful to avoid eye-contact with any of the strangers making out. 

The second story was a lot quieter, most doors were closed and only god knew what was going down on the other side. Jisung walked the hallways peering into any rooms that were left open. Now sober from the adrenaline he was feeling, he was keen on finding one person in particular. 

Jisung was moving so fast he almost missed it, but outside on the backside terrace, he saw a head of messy brown hair staring up into the sky. 

“Minho!” Jisung yelled out before running out onto the terrace to greet the older boy. 

“Jisung,” Minho said back in an almost surprised manner. 

“Minho are you alright? Are you ok? Are you hurt?” Jisung frantically looked around Minho’s face for any signs of distress.

“What? I’m fine, I’m fine,” Minho repeated as he leaned back, trying to maintain a healthy distance between his and Jisung’s ever-growing closer faces.

“I’m so sorry,” Jisung was drunk crying as he continued to move closer to Minho, “I didn’t know this was a party by Day6.”

“Are you drunk?” Minho settled on bracing his hands on Jisung’s shoulders.

Without much thought to Minho’s question Jisung continued his little crying session, “I’m sorry I didn’t look for you when I first got here, I’m sorry I didn’t go to the party with you after school, I-” 

Jisung was cut off by Minho, “Hey, hey,” he said in a quiet soothing tone, “no it’s fine, I’m fine, you’re fine. 

“I wanted to go with you so badly though,” Jisung pouted at the older boy.

Minho was profusely confused at the younger one’s behavior, never having experienced this before with Jisung, well not that they experience much together, guess Jisung didn’t strike him as the weeping type.

He continued to hold onto the smaller boy, “you told me you had a project to do and I wasn’t thinking straight, it’s okay.”

“Not thinking straight? Does that mean you didn’t actually want to go with me?” 

Jisung was about to break into more tears when Minho’s cry of fear broke through his thoughts.

“Jisung can you please stop moving towards me? I'm going to fall.”

Without realizing it, Jisung had backed Minho up against the low railing of the terrace, below them the party raged on. Thick crowds of people swarmed in the backyard as more music pumped through the large speakers. The shallow end of the pools splayed directly underneath them, and Jisung could see a few people bobbing up and down in the deep end. 

“Please Jisung,” an almost whimper came out of him, “I’m scared of heights.” 

Having snapped out of his weird drunk crying state, Jisung pulled back while dragging Minho’s hands with him. They both now stood at a safe distance from the edge in the middle of the terrace. Jisung’s hands remained wrapped around Minho’s thin wrists. 

The older boy could feel the light squeeze on his wrists and when he looked up, Jisung’s eyes were lightly coated with a sheen of tears.

“Stay here, I’ll get you some water,” Minho turned to head inside but a tug on his long-sleeved shirt stopped him. 

“I’m sorry,” Jisung apologized, although unsure what exactly he was apologizing for.

Minho’s eyes softened and took Jisung’s hands in his own, thumbing over the back of his knuckles. He let their hands slip and Minho walked indoors to retrieve water, leaving a dazed Jisung on the backside terrace.

⚘

After about 15 minutes of waiting, Jisung began to get nervous, _It wouldn’t take this long to get water_ , he thought to himself. He began to pace around the terrace, his well-hidden anxiety leaking through. 

He turned his head inside and looked for Minho when he suddenly was face to face with who he was looking for. A wave of relief washed over him and his shoulders noticeably relaxed. 

“You ok?” Minho asked.

“You took so damn long,” Jisung lightly snapped out of embarrassment at how much he had worried. 

Having seen Jisung back to his usual self, Minho let out a laugh.

Jisung’s chest filled with butterflies as the sound of Minho’s laugh resonated out into the night.

“Here this is for you,” Minho handed Jisung a medium-sized glass of water.

 _15 minutes for this_? He thought, unconvinced that it took that long for a single glass of water.

And as if Minho could read his mind he answered Jisung’s internal question, “it’s tap water,” he paused, “it was the only source that I assumed wasn’t spiked,” the brown-haired boy said nervously.

“How do I know you didn’t spike it?” Jisung asked jokingly.

“You don’t,” Minho deadpanned, an awkward silence filled the space around them.

Jisung was taken back from the sudden serious tone Minho spoke with and wasn’t sure if he was actually spiked his drink.

On cue, Minho averted his eyes from Jisung and rubbed the back of his neck, “sorry that was a joke, maybe not a very good one.”

“Oh- I mean I got it,” Jisung lied and lightly laughed in his most convincing way.

As if all the drunk confidence seeped out of Jisung, the two no longer knew what to say to one another. Instead of talking, Jisung took to his thoughts, remembering that he accidentally (?) kissed Minho’s forehead that one morning. Or that he watched the older boy dance another morning OR the wrestling in the school hall right outside the math room. All the embarrassing things he’s done _with_ Minho came all at once. Jisung became a blushing mess and thanked that the night was dark, masking his red cheeks.

“You’re a good dancer,” Minho said out of the blue as they overlooked the party from the terrace. This caused Jisung to spit out his mouth full of water, the droplets falling over the railing. 

Minho’s laugh ripped through the tension that had surrounded them and Jisung couldn’t help but weakly laugh, embarrassed that Minho had somehow seen him dance. 

“I mean I saw you when I came up here and you were very good at dancing to Dance the Night Away,” Minho let another laugh out, causing Jisung to go full-on red with embarrassment.

“Wha- why didn’t you say something to me?”

“You looked like you were having fun and I didn’t want to ruin it,” Minho cast his eyes to the ground.

“It would have been more fun with you though,” Jisung blurted out, not caring how strange the words sounded when they practically didn’t know each other.Where they even considered friends? Jisung hasn’t done anything that would indicate they were, in fact, Minho probably thought he was a weirdo. The question was daunting and he did very little to entertain the idea that Minho saw him any sort of way.

Minho offered Jisung a weak smile before the door to the terrace slammed open and three older looking boys, Jiusng assumed were seniors, entered the little balcony.

“Well if it isn't Lee Minho, I thought I saw you snaking your way through the kitchen,” a large, taller, boy approached Jisung and Minho. 

“Jungkook?” Minho's voice suddenly spiked with panic.

Jisung had never seen the three boys in front of him and wondered what their connection was to Minho.

“It’s been a while, what since middle school? A little birdy told me you were hanging out with a new boy toy,” Jungkook eyed Jisung which he assumed was a freshman, “guess the rumors were true.”

At the mention of his name, a knot formed in Jisung’s stomach; however he was less scared about himself and more scared for Minho. Jisung knew he would be able to fight if things got ugly but he didn’t know if Minho could, he hasn’t in the past and Jisung had no clue if he had it in him now.

“And I hear you’ve been convincing people to call you Lee Know? What a pathetic name,” Jungkook slowly advanced towards them, “people like you are not welcomed at parties like these, there’s a little gay bar down the street for ya, fondle boys there.”

“Gay bar?” Jisung whispered from the sidelines, not knowing that Jungkook heard him.

The eldest boy scuffed at Jisung’s ignorance, “does your little boy toy not know you’re gay? He must be gay if he’s hanging around with you.”

Jisung was about to sucker punch this Jungkook dude when Minho stepped out in front of him, holding his arm slightly out to prevent Jisung from launching himself at the senior. 

“You leave Jisung out of this,” Minho said with a stern look, one that Jisung had never seen before. 

“Ah the boy toy’s name is Jisung is it?”

Minho’s eyes burned with a look Jisung couldn’t quite place, he began to raise his voice, “Jungkook,” Minho said snidely, “how do _you_ know where a gay bar is?” Minho raised an eyebrow, taunting the older boy.

Jisung had never seen anyone so flustered; however, the red on Jungkook’s face might have been from the absolute rage he was emanating. Fumes looked like they were coming from him. 

“Boys, hold him over,” and for the first time since the seniors arrived, the other two older boys moved. With fear in his eyes, Minho backed away from the advancing seniors. Jisung backed up too in order to avoid Minho’s backpedaling. The seniors took Minho by the arms, restraining and preventing him from fighting back.

They dragged the brown-haired boy to the edge of the terrace, Minho’s upper body hung over the edge and his feet tried grabbing at the grand for any kind of support.

Jisung was quick to move but Jungkook was quicker, the senior grabbed Jisung from behind and put him in a headlock. 

“Hmmm, you are a cutie.”

Jisung shuttered at the words whispered into his ear from the senior. He was then forced to watch the other two boys hold Minho dangerously over the edge, their grip on Minho was the only thing keeping him from falling. 

“Let go of me,” Jisung tried to scream, but his words were cut off from the pressure Jungkook was applying to his throat. He watched as Minho’s eyes were flooding with tears, his face full of fear; yet Jisung was unable to help. _No stop, please don’t hurt him_ , Jisung’s thoughts swarmed because he was unable to vocalize any of them, _I’ll do anything but please don’t hurt him, not again_.

In his final attempt to break free Jisung rammed the heel of his thick platform shoe into the shin of his assailant. Jungkook stumbled back, gripping his leg and releasing Jisung. 

With no time to lose, Jisung lunged forward in an attempt to get hold of something, someone.

“NOW!”

A piercing cry was heard from behind, Jisung helplessly watched as the grip on Minho’s arms were released. As if it were in slow motion, Jisung watched as Minho slowly fell forwards and over the edge of the balcony railing. Jisung swore he locked eyes with Minho’s - crystalized with tears and an apologetic expression. 

In an instant, the moment returned to normal and Minho was gone - over the edge in a blink of an eye. Jisung scrambled to the edge of the railing to peer down, fear gripping at his chest.

“NO!” Jisung screamed out, the entire outside portion of the party halted as Minho’s body collided with the surface of the pool, a large _splash_ resonated throughout the backyard. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, Kutos and comments are appreciated because I sometimes need validation to know I'm doing stuff right >.<  
> Also something I'd like to address from a previous chapter - Jisung's dad used to travel overseas for work and the mom stayed home, but since the beginning of the story, Jisung's dad came back due to an early retirement and the mom now takes jobs overseas.  
> Ight, see you next chapter :)


	7. Beginning of something new

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I'm so sorry for being so inactive and I apologize for this seeming/being so rushed. No beta because it wasn't worth it. Thank you so much for supporting the story.

Jisung was in a choking sob when two pairs of hands roughly grabbed him by the shoulders. He was suddenly drawn back from the edge and situated to face away from the edge.

“You brat if you didn’t kick me you boyfriend would have had to fall,” with the inside of his boot, Jungkook kicked Jisung in the side which sent the smaller boy to the ground. 

Not paying attention to the words spewing out of the senior’s mouth, Jisung rose to fight back but was abruptly stopped by one of the other guys, “you absolute piece of shit! You will go to Hell even if I have to send you there myself. You. Will. Pay,” Jisung tried to fight but he was running on fumes and pure anger. His movements were sloppy and predictable, which led him to be pinned down by the two other seniors. 

“Jisung listen carefully, Minho is bad news and you don’t want to associate yourself with him. I’m saving you.”

“Save your preaching for the devil,” Jisung spat at Jungkook, earning him a slap in the face.

Not much more could happen before a familiar voice shouted from inside the house.

“Hey get the fuck off him.” 

When Jisung managed to lift his head from the cold ground he saw Chan and Felix rushing out onto the terrace.

“Holy shit Jisung!” A panicked Felix came rushing to aid Jisung while Chan stepped in to intervene Jungkook from landing another punch.

“Jungkook what the hell!”

“The twink had it coming,” Jungkook spat at Chan.

Felix’s deep soothing yet worried voice broke through to Jisung, “Hey buddy are you ok? Do you need ice for your face?” 

“Felix,” Jisung’s voice was quivering, “I need to go to Minho.”

“Jisung you just got hit in the face, you shou-”

“Felix please! Minho just fell from the terrace! I have to find him!”

“Oh shi- Minho was the one who fell?”

Jisung nodded frantically.

Felix pulled Jisung off the ground and the two slipped by Jungkook, leaving Chan to deal with the three seniors. 

“Felix, you can go back to Chan, he’ll probably need more help than me.”

The small Aussie boy hesitated for a moment unable to leave his friend, but eventually Felix agreed, and with a small nod took off back up the stairs to the terrace. 

Jisung turned swiftly the other way and ran to the backyard. Expecting to find an unconscious body in the pool, Jisung was shocked to find a lack of cute boys with brown hair named Minho. The already established panic in his chest tripled and Jisung thought he was going to throw up. 

What scared, and angered, him more was that almost the entire party continued on. Only for a second did the scene of the party die down when he saw Minho fall from the terrace, only for a second did people notice the brown hair boy, only for a second did Minho’s existence seem to pierce through to others.

Did no one care enough to see if Minho was ok? God why are people so stupid? Jisung had tears in his eyes and a heavy heart. Why was he feeling the weight of Minho’s problems? Why did he care so much while others turned a blind eye? _Well, I have to._ He thought to himself. _Minho, I can’t explain it, he’s like no one I've ever met. He’s so strange but I’m just drawn to him. I know he’s fun, magical, exquisite, but he’s hiding it. I don't know how I know, intuition?_ He questions, _I just want to know more._

Jisung wiped the tear that was forming in his eye, with a new found determination, along with residing fear and panic, Jisung searched for Minho. He couldn’t have gone far seeing as he just fell from the second story into the pool - but even so, Jisung had a hard time finding the older boy among the crowd. 

Jisung’s thoughts and panic were seeping into his mind and fogging his vision. The crowded living room he was in felt smaller and smaller, _god this is not the time to be having a panic attack_ , he thought. 

“Hey Jisung,” a familiar voice called out to him. It snapped Jisung’s attention back into reality and his vision focused to the person in front.

“Changbin!” Jisung felt a wave of relief. 

“Jisung was that Minho I saw in the front? He looked absolutely soaking wet.”

“Wait where?!” Jisung lunged forward to take Changbin by the arms, holding desperately to the man’s biceps.

“Woah there, I saw him in the front about 5 minutes ago, but I can’t be sure it was him. All I know is he was soaking wet head to toe.”

“Thank you Changbing!” Jisung practically screams in the poor boy’s face, giving his hyung a big fat kiss on the cheek before running out the front door of the house.

“Hey! What the hell? I’ll get you for that” Jisung could hear Changbin shout from inside the house, but he heard no bite in his hyung’s words.

In the front Jisung is unable to find Minho, but when he looked to the street, on the sidewalk he could clearly make out the dark spots of a water trail. It traveled to the right - in the direction of the beach. 

Confused yet with no time to think, Jisung went sprinting after the trial Minho had left behind. Oh god, Jisung had no clue if Minho was alright and it frightened him to the bone to think Minho was in pain. But it seemed that he was always in pain, the look in his eyes are so hollow, it hurts, it hurts. My chest hurts for him.

Heaving like crazy, Jisung stops at the top of the bluffs, the water trail left by Minho long gone after Jisung hit the sandy dunes of the western beach. 

In the low visibility, Jisung scouted the beach looking for any signs of Minho. _There_! Jisung spots a dark figure trudging through the sand a couple hundred meters away from where he was. Jisung launches back into action to catch up to the boy who wasn’t aware of Jisung closing in on him. 

Jisung was only a few meters away when he saw Minho’s body lose all its strength, he watched as Minho’s body started to collapse on itself a second time that night. But unlike the first time, Jiung was able to get to Minho before gravity could take the boy from him again. 

Jisung had grabbed Minho’s wrist and pulled the brown haired boy in his direction. His plan partially worked, Minho was leaning, but falling, towards him and Jisung couldn’t stop his forward momentum. With a thump Jisung collided with Minho and the two fell on the sand. Jisung would like to think he took the brunt of this fall, seeing as how Minho was laying on top of him with closed exhausted eyes. 

Just briefly was the wind knocked out of him from the impact, but the second time his breath was stolen from the sight before him: Minho laid - head on Jisung’s chest - so beautifully across Jisung. The boy’s brown locks were darkened, clumpy and smelled slightly of chlorine pool water. But to Jisung he was stunning. He wondered how someone could look so good while being practically unconscious.

 _Oh shit_ , he thought, _Minho’s unconscious_? 

Jisung took his hand and brushed away lightly, the locks in front of his face, the hair just long enough to be tucked behind his ear. 

“Minho,” Jisung whispered, “Lee Minho,” he called again. 

Jisung moved his hand down the boy’s chest and rubbed small circles on his back, knowing that’s what used to make him feel better when he was younger. 

Jisung could feel the weight on his chest lighten as Minho stirred back into consciousness, now holding some of his own weight. Jisung never stopped rubbing Minho’s back.

“Minho,” Jisung released a breath that had held in. He was awestruck and in disbelief of just everything that happened in the last half hour. 

“Jisung!” Minho startled awake. 

“Come back here,” Jisung said dragging Minho’s head back to rest on his chest, “don’t run away from me again.

Minho’s muscles tensed at his words, “again?” He asked shakily.

“Hmm yes, again. I couldn’t find you after you fell and, god Minho, I was so worried.”

Minho’s body relaxed and he released a giant sigh of his own. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t want you to see me like this,” Minho confessed. 

“Like what? If there wasn’t the possibility that you have several broken bones I’d say you’re the most attractive person I’ve ever seen.” Jisung could hear Minho suddenly choke on nothing, the boy’s gaze cast away from Jisung - which he absolutely despised. Jisung reached out to guid Minho’s gaze back at him, “I’m serious.”

“I- I just assumed you would have found me repulsive.”

“What nonsense are you speaking, “Jisung frowned at such a thought.

Although Jisung had said that to try and lighten the mood, Minho was all but joyous, “I was afraid you would be disgusted at me when you found out I was gay,” Minho shifted his weight to try and remove himself from off of Jisung, but the latter helf firm to the elder. 

“No.” Jisung was stern and serious despite his light attitude seconds ago. “No, I would never think of you as that.”

“But why, you don’t know me?,” Minho quietly asked.

“I may not, but I want to. I want to understand you gyung, and know you for real. Not as these rumors, not as these pitied remarks made by others, and not as a victim of bullies. I want to know you as something else.” 

“What?” Minho’s voice was beginning to crack, but he hid it well from the younger. 

Jisung at this point was running on adrenaline and impulse, his mouth moved faster than his mind could comprehend. “What I mean is, I would like to be your friend, if you'd let me. A good friend if you’d let me.” 

“Jisung…” Minho sighed and eased into the younger’s embrace. 

Jisung stayed with Minho on the beach dunes, listening to the lulls of the sea. The moon was high in the sky, full and beautiful. It cast moonlight down to illuminate the beach. Jisung rested his head on Minho’s shoulder, their fingers lingering close enough to touch. Minho shuddered when a cool breeze swept by.

It had escaped Jisung’s thought that Minho was still wet from the pool water and the cool night might as well turn him ice cold.“Do you want a jacket? You’ll catch a cold like this,” Jisung ruffled Minho’s slightly damp hair.

“Yeah you can I borrow the XX hoodie?”

Jisung froze in his spot, “um, the one from the XX edition?” 

“Yes,” Minho answered absentmindedly. 

“How did you know I had one on?”

When Jisung locked eye contact with Minho, the latter did his best to avoid it but Jisung was too fast - the smaller boy sprung himself against the older boy, knocking them both over, Jisung now laying beside Minho, leg swung around to capture the older boy’s hips. Just like the time outside the math class, Jisung had the leverage and kept Minho pinned to the ground.

“Minho-ooo,” Jisung whined playfully, “ is there something you’re not telling me?”

If only the hoodie was the most important secret Minho hid from Jisung

Minho hid his face in his hands, “I’m sorry, it was me.”

“Tell me baby,” Jisung teased, causing Minho to bury his face more into his hands. Jisung poked at his hands to try and get him to open up. 

Eventually the embarrassment was too much and Minho took Jisung into his arms and pressed themselves together - this way Jisung couldn’t see how red he was, from the comment and their close proximity.

“Iwastheonewhogaveyouthejacket,” Minho sped through, gripping the younger one out of embarrassment. 

Jisung hummed happily, “I knew it!”

“What no you didn’t.”

“Did to, I just wanted to hear it from you.”

“Shut up,” Minho buried his face in Jisung’s neck. He thought maybe he was overstepping his boundary, but the younger did nothing to object or pull away from the embrace. “How?”

“Hmm?” The questioning sound left Jisung’s throat. 

“How’d you know it was me?”

“You slipped up when we were outside the math class,” he pulled back enough to send Minho a wink. 

“Hey! You should have told me right then! Now I have to live with this embarrassment.”

Jisung let out a laugh, the one to turn his smile into a heart and eyes into crescents. 

“You’re not getting away with this,” Minho gave Jisung a mischievous glare, “remember when you came into the classroom and I was by the window that one morning, well I was awake for that.”

Jisung furrowed his brows in confusion, “what that wasn’t emb-,” the boy froze. Minho could see Jisung’s face turn a shade of crimson. 

Jisung shot his head down, now he was the one to tuck into Minho’s neck, “no please tell me you weren’t.”

“I couldn’t say it if it wasn’t true,” Minho teased, smiling to have given Jisung a tast of his own medicine. 

Jisung let out a groan, which ticked Miho’s neck, and wished he could disappear right there. If what Minho said was true, and he was awake when Jisung found him in the classroom, then that means Minho also was awake when Jisung kissed him on the forehead. 

“You took such good care of me,” Minho lifted Jisung’s head away from his neck. Minho had dropped his teasing tone and only sincerity could be felt by his words, “you’re the first person to have cared about me. Thank you.”

Jisung wasn’t used to such sincerity from the older and didn’t know how to act, instead he rested his head on Minho’s chest and just breathed, their breaths rising and falling in sync. Thankfully Minho hadn’t moved to speak out about it. 

“Minho?”

“Hm?”

“You get bullied at school,” Jisung stated.

“I do indeed.”

“What if I could help you.”

“How would you do that?”

“I’d teach you to fight back?”

“Fight back?”

“Yes, basic defense, you wouldn’t have to hurt anyone.”

“No, I’ll do it all, teach me please.”

Jisung smiled at Minho’s words, “It’ll be hard, the training I mean. I’m going to teach you actual martial arts and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to teach you without being a master.”

“Sounds all the more fun.”

_To be continued_


	8. Start Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied, imma write this thing.  
> No beta

_Nice to meet you, I'm Jisung!_

_Hi I’m_ _⊑⟒⌰⌰⍜ ỻ⎍⋔⏃,_ _would you like to be my friend?_

Jisung woke with a start, his ears now ringing with a sound he can’t comprehend. His eyes trained on a ceiling that was not his own. Sudden memories of the last 24 hours came barreling down onto him and coupled with his hangover Jisung’s head was on absolute fire, and it didn’t seem to be letting up. 

Gosh what did happen last night, the last thing he could remember was being with Minho by the beach. Jisung sat quietly deep in thought, unaware of a figure creeping up behind him.

“G'day mate.”

Jisung whipped around, “reeeee” he screeched. “God Felix you scared me.”

“Haha sorry mate I couldn’t pass on the opportunity.” 

Jisung now realized he was sitting on Felix’s pull out couch in the living room. 

“What happened last night? Why can’t I remember anything?”

“Ok so promise to not get mad?” Felix winced as a scorn adorned Jisung’s face.

“Felix, what happened?”

“Don’t worry you didn’t do anything wrong, nothing really happened. I’m just scared you’ll get made at me if I told you Chan tracked you to the beach.”

“I’m sorry he did what?” Jisung shouted more aggressively than he intended.

“Oi this is why I didn’t want to say anything.”

“No no, I’m sorry, but please Felix tell me what’s going on.”

Felix hesitated a bit, “ok well when we tracked you to the beach we saw you and Minho out on the dunes. You were passed out cold and laying on him. When we tried to take you back home Minho snapped at us and wouldn’t let you go.”

A red blush coated Jisung’s face as Felix revealed what happened last night. _All this happened when I was asleep?_ He thought. “He snapped at you guys?”

“Yeah, Chan honestly looked like he was gonna try and fight Minho for you. But anywho, Minho went on about not being able to trust us and so he wouldn’t hand you over. He looked scared of Chan and was trembling but he wouldn’t leave you.”

“It was probably cold,” Jisung tried to give reason to Minho’s behavior.

“I don’t know man he seemed pretty attached. Like I said, you were out cold and Minho said he thought one of us could have spiked your drink. Chan argued with him, chan saying that he couldn't trust you to stay with Min either.” 

Jisung fidgeted with the hem of his shirt at the implication of staying with Minho.

“So then how did you get a hold of me?”

“Well Chan swore that we weren’t going to do anything to you, he even had to pull up our group chat that said you were staying with us. “

“Damn really? He had to bust out the receipts?”

“Ha yeah, so you better thank Chan for going the length to get you back, honestly we could have left you - Minho didn’t seem like he was going to hurt you at all- but you mom was picking you up at our house this morning and I was not about to explain to her that you were at some random boy’s house.”

Jisung chuckled at his little Aussie friend, “ thank you Felix I appreciate it. I’ll have to thank Chan too when I see him next.”

“That boy trusts you a lot Jisung, I’m not sure how you did it but he wouldn’t let you go; even after showing him the chats he kept holding onto you.”

Jisung looked into Felix’s eyes that showed a softness he didn’t know they could possess. 

“That boy even insisted on carrying you to the van, boy if I’ve ever seen someone so whipped,” Felix said playfully. 

This made Jisung extremely flustered and so he involuntarily smacked Felix on the shoulder, causing the Aussie to yelp in fake pain. The two laughed off the little tension that crept around them. 

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Monday rolled around sooner than anyone expected and Jisung; although hating Mondays, wasn’t too opposed to seeing the brown haired boy in his last class of the day. 

When the last class of the day did roll around Jisung was bouncing off the walls in secret excitement, his friends happened to notice his change of attitude. 

“Dude why are you so hyper today? It’s literally Monday, nobody is this hyper on a Monday,” Hyunjin asked as he walked with Jisung to his locker. 

“Umm, no specific reason really,” Jisung said, _a small white lie won’t kill_ , he thought to himself. He wasn’t even really lying, Jisung himself didn’t really know why he was excited. He knew it had to do with Minho but he lacked the specific reasons. 

“You on something?” Hyunjin joked, earning him a light slap to the back. 

The entire friend group noticed over the last month and few weeks that Jisung had the tendency to slap or hit when provoked or flustered. It was never anything serious but once or twice Jisung would end up hitting them a little too hard. 

In math Jisung was first into the room, sitting down in his designated seat, Minho's seat right next to him. Students started filing in, one by one, taking their own seats behind him. Eventually the last person to enter was the teacher, he closed the door behind him to begin his lesson. 

But where the heck was Minho? Jisung was annoyed to say the least. The one day he was actually excited for the damn class and the one person he doesn’t hate there didn’t show up. 

After a grueling hour of math class the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Before being dismissed the teacher walked around handing out homework and a permission slip for the end of the year school trip. This year the groupings are based on last period blocks which unfortunately, or fortunately, was Jisung’s math class. Jisung was a year ahead in math and so his traveling group is with kids all in the grades above, none from his. 

“Make sure you have a parent or guardian sign this and bring it back by next week, the school needs them back soon in order to determine rooming and trip locations.”

Jisung was too distracted to really pay attention, his mind wandering off to a certain someone. He was of course down about a particular brown haired boy. He wasn’t sure where the sudden sadness came from, he had no reason to miss Minho’s presence. 

As the teacher dismissed the class a thought popped into Ji’s little head. He walked up to the front of the class while everyone else headed to the exit and asked, “can I get an extra one?”

“Hm? An extra permission slip?”

“Yes! Lee Know was absent today and he’ll need it for the trip right?”

“Well yes of course but he can pick one up when he comes to class next time.”

“I can take it to him,” Jisung said, trying to keep the desperation in his voice to a minimum. “I’m actually going over to his place right after school,” Jisung lied between his teeth. He had absolutely no clue where Minho lived or how he’d get there.

“Oh in that case here,” the teacher passed an extra slip to Jisung, “make sure he knows to have his parents read the dietary and health notes on the backside. Thank you.”

“No problem, thank you,” Jisung responded, holding the extra sheets of paper as if they were made of gold. 

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

“Oi Felix, Felic, Felix,” Jisung called out to the freckled boy who was exiting the front of the school. 

_Gahh_ was the sound Felix made as he was yanked back by his backpack straps, “Wha? Jisung? What’s gotten into you? Are you ok?”

“Yes Felix, sorry bout that, I need your help.” 

Felix turned to give his full attention to Jisung, prompting him to continue.

“I have Minho’s permission slip for the field trip in the spring, “ Jisung held out the piece of paper right in front of Felix’s face. 

“Um, I see it, yes.” 

“I said I’d give it to him but I have no clue where he lives.” Jisung shyly said, embarrassed at his irrational decision knowing he couldn’t fulfill it. 

“Ah I see, you just wanted an excuse to see your crush right?”

“What?! Crush no!” 

“No it’s ok Jisung I won’t tell anyone you have a crush on the quiet shy boy.”

“Felix I don’t have a crush on him! I’m just being a good classmate and giving him the slip for the field trip,” Jisung tried to search for another valid reason to visit Minho, “I have math notes for him.”

“Hmm Jisung I was kidding, but seeing your reaction maybe you do,” Felix wiggled his eyebrows at Jisung who shrunk into himself. “If you’re looking to find out where he lives I think you should ask Seungmin, he has some ties to the student council who probably have a large book of addresses. 

“Ah thank you Felix!” Jisung leans over and kisses the freckled boy on the cheek.

 _Ekkk_ Felix squeaked, raising a fist at Jisung as an empty threat. Jisung backed away faster than Felix could throw, laughing as he went back into the school, “thanks bud I owe you one.”

Jisung ran through the emptied halls, some students still lingering for after school programs. He weaved his way through the hall in hopes of catching Seungmin by his locker. As he rounded the corner he smacked right into another student.

“Ow, huh Jisung?”

Jisung looked across from him Seungmin was on the floor in the same position as him, “ah Seungmin just the person I was looking for!” 

“Oh? Jisung you could have just texted me, running in the halls is dangerous.”

“Loosen up Seung, rules schmules _(a/n idk if that’s a word)_ it’s not all about them.”

“I’m capable of loosening up, but you could have hurt someone, _Sung_. Anyways, why are you after me?”

“Ah right, I was wondering if you have a book of all the students’ addresses, I kind of need it.”

Seungmin raised a brow at this, “Jisung student council can’t just give that material out.” Seungmin recently joined the student ambassadors and has access to student council material

“But you’re not student council technically so you _could_ give it to me.”

“You know what I mean,” Seungmin rose from the ground, grabbing his backpack and hoisting Jisung up as well. 

“Please,” Jisung gave his best puppy dog eyes. 

Seungmin pretended to poke him with his middle and pointer finger, “no.”

“Guess I’m going to have to break into the student council room and find it myself.”

Seungmin gasped, “you wouldn’t!” 

“Wanna find out?” Jisung playfully challenged the younger.

“Ugh absolutely not, I need to put an anti Jisung fence around the door. Who are you trying to find anyways? If your answer is legit I may consider.”

“Umm,” Jisung paused, now hesitant to tell Seungmin his true motives,”I have to drop off some papers at a friend’s house.”

“Han Jisung has friends apart from the group?” Seungmin was legitimately shocked but a playful glint stilled in his eyes. 

“Hey I do as a matter of fact.”

“Who’s the friend? Now I’m just curious,” Seungmin looped his arm over Jisung’s shoulder, guiding him in the direction of the student council room.

“Oh um, you wouldn’t know him, he’s in my math class.”

“Oh _he’s_ a him? Is it _the_ him?” 

“Who him?”

“Dunno the one you were thinking about kissing.”

Jisung’s face flushed red and he went silent. Seungmin looked down, feeling the heat rise off the back of the boy’s neck.

“Oh shi- really? I was only joking.”

“I’m not sure really,” Jisung now shy and playing with the sleeves of his sweatshirt, “I just would like to see him.”

Seungmin didn’t poke for details. He silently guided Jisung to stand outside the student council room while he retrieved the grand book of addresses. 

“What’s his name? I’ll look him up.”

“What no I don’t wanna tell,” Jisung said defensively. 

“Ugh fine, can you give me a last name then?”

Jisung told Seungmin _Lee_ and the boy flipped through the book to the L section and turned it for Jisung to read. Over 120 students at JYP shared the last name Lee, and Jisung skipped to the Lee M- section to try and find Minho's name. 

Over and over he read that one part trying to identify a Lee Minho but he couldn’t find one. _What the heck? Where is it?_ He thought to himself. 

“Slowpoke, you know I’m not supposed to do this, have you found his name?”

“Aye, no there’s like a billion people with the last name Lee here.” Jisung scanned the Lee M over and over. “ _Know? Ah Lee Know”_ Jisung almost forgot that Minho doesn’t go by his real name at school. He scanned the Lee K- section of the page and as he expected only one Lee Know was listed. Quickly, Jisung committed the address to memory.

“Seungminnie!” A voice rang through the hall. Seungmin snapped the book shut, almost on Jisung’s nose, and tucked it under his arm. Hyunjin was barrelling down the hall towards them. “Ready to go?” the tall boy asked. Seungmin nodded, stating he just has to return something to the student council office.

“Where are you guys going?” Jisung asked as Seungmin went back into the student council room.

“Seungmin and I have a tradition to go to the PC cafe after school on Mondays and Thursdays. Ever since freshman year I promised I’d teach him all the games there.”

“Ready,” Seungmin said while emerging through the door. Hyunjin slung his arm over Seungmin’s shoulder. The two have stated they were close but how close they are, Jisung wasn’t sure. Hyunjin and Seungmin were about to head off when a particular little freshman walked by. 

“Innie,” Hyunjin called out, releasing his arm around Seungmin to go walk over and greet the younger. “Hey Seungmin and I are about to go to the PC Cafe close by, would you like to come along?”

The younger stood hesitantly, “umm I actually have a project to do.” Jisung squinted slightly at the youngest’s words, he knows very well what lying sounds like, and that boy right there just lied; however, Jisung doesn’t have the time to bring it up. Instead he

thanked Seungmin, told him he owed him one, and exited the school with a plan in motion. That was until his phone started buzzing in his pocket. It was his mom. 

᠃ ⚘᠃

“Hello? Mother?”

_“Jisung where are you? I thought we agreed you were coming straight home after school?”_

“Ah sorry I got roped into a study group after school for World History, I won’t be back until 7.”

Jisung could hear his mom grumbling on the other side of the phone, “ _ok fine but next time you have to let me know, at least tell your father. Shall I have him pick you up at the school?”_

“No!” Jisung accidentally shouted, immediately regretting the hostile tone, “no that won’t be necessary, sorry I raised my voice.” 

_“Apology accepted, alright I expect you back by 7.”_ His mom hung up the phone before he was able to say goodbye. 

Jisung let out a big sigh, he’s all in practice being rebellious and ditching his duties, but for some reason this time makes him nervous. Of all the times he ditched, this one one felt - how should he put it?- important. It felt important to him.

He took his phone and punched in the address he remembered from the book, _an hour and fifteen minutes by car?!_ Jisung thought he must have typed the wrong thing, but sure enough the address was correct, word for word, number by number.

It would take an hour and forty-five minutes by bus and it was already 3:30, Jisung decided he had to get a move on now if he even dreamed of getting back to his house by 7. Jisung ended up falling asleep on the bus and almost missing his stop. Thankfully his head hit the plastic window pane when the bus hit a bump and now he’s awake.

Standing outside what he assumed to be Minho’s house, his first impression was: regular. Nothing out of the ordinary, which Jisung doesn’t know what he was actually assuming. Not rich but not poor, but looking at it he’s not sure how Minho’s family afforded JYPA. Walking up the porch to the door Jisung knocked, standing back waiting for someone to answer. 

_“Who the hell is at the door?”_ Jisung heard someone inside say. _“Hell if I know,”_ he heard a man say. _“Go answer it women.”_ The man said again. _“I’ll raise hell if I hear that come out of your mouth again.”_ Jisung straightened up as he heard the voice approach the door. 

The door opened, but just slightly, enough for maybe a credit card to fit, an older woman, who Jisung assumed to be Minho’s mother, answered. 

“Who the hell are you?” The women quipped.

Jisung was honestly taken back from the sudden lashing. “Oh um, I’m Han Jisung. I’m here looking for Lee M- Lee Know.”

“He ain’t here kid.” 

“But he wasn’t at school today?” Jisung asked in confusion.

“He ain’t here I said, now scram.” 

“I have some math notes and papers for him.” Jisung held the permission slip papers in his hand.

 _“Who’s at the door hun?”_ The man’s voice shouted.

“Just some kid,” She leaned back, accidentally exposing more of the interior. Inside Jisung could see bottles on the coffee table and clothes littered everywhere. Jisung spotted Minho’s backpack inside but it was absolutely ransacked and papers and notebooks were splayed everywhere. 

The women turned back to Jisung, “look kid, whatever Lee Know told you about us ain’t true.”

“I’m sorry ma’am but Lee Know hadn’t said anything about you two, why should there be a reason?” Jisung’s voice dripped with a venom he didn’t know he had. However after saying that he immediately regretted it because the air around them turned toxic enough to kill. 

The woman side eye’d the boy and grabbed the papers that were in his hand. The saying ‘if looks could kill’ held a whole new meaning to him. 

Suddenly a small bright object slid past the gap in the door. It was so fast Jisung didn’t have time to move but the object only grazed his cheek before falling past him onto the porch. When Jisung looked behind he saw the shiny transparent face of a piece of glass. Jisung looked back into the house and the man had his arm extended. 

_Did this guy just throw a piece of glass at me?_

“Honey what the fuck? What if you hit him in the eye, we could have gotten in so much trouble.” 

“He ain’t got anything to prove it.” the man now directed his voice at Jisung, “leave kid and if you say a word about this I won’t miss a second time.” 

Jisung was stunned, he felt a warm drip fall down his face where the glass grazed him. When he touched his cheek, red stained his hand. He shuffled back from the dorr and off the porch, absolutely stunned at the man and women before him. The front door didn’t shut all the way until Jisung was on the sidewalk and heading off. Still stunned, Jisung almost missed the splitting sound of glass shattering. There was no mistake the sound came from Minho’s house. Slinking back to the perimeter of the house Jisung looked up into a side window, inside he saw shadows moving and the unmistakable head of brown hair. 

Jisung was praying it was Minho’s room because without thinking he was crossing the lawn to the side of the house. A singular tree perfectly stood next to Minho’s room and lucky for Jisung it was easy enough to climb. Gosh it’s been a while since he ever climbed a tree and his legs shook as he balanced himself on the branches. Leaping from the branch to the roof, Jisung clung to the roof for dear life. 

Popping the window open that was already cracked open Jisung crawled inside, he landed on the desk right below and hopped off the desk, trying to tidy it back to how it was before landing on it. As he did he heard yelling and screaming from down below. Another bottle shattered and Jisung froze in his tracks. He heard the sound of footsteps approaching the doorway and all Jisung could do was stand still as a brown-haired boy furiously entered the room, slamming the door behind him. 

Minho hasn’t spotted Jisung in the corner of his room and continued to pace back and forth in the center of his room. A mix of rage and sadness filled him.

“Minho,” Jisung quietly said from the corner.

Minho was scared shitless and almost jumped right out of his skin. “Holy shit, Jisung?”

“Minho I can explain I- wait are you bleeding?” Jisung trained his eyes on the red stain on his left arm. “Minho!” Jisung said again, approaching the boy who covered his arm to hide it from view. “Minho, wait please let me help you-”

“No Jisung you shouldn’t have come here, how did you even get here?”

“I promise to tell you everything but Minho I have to call for help you’re going to lose a lot of blood,” Jisung reached for his phone and held it in his hand.

“No you can’t!” Without knowing what was going on, Jisung was laying on his back, Minho sitting on top of him wrestling him to drop his phone.

“Minho you’re bleeding a lot, you’re hurt, please let me help you.” Jisung pleaded. Minho’s grip tightened around his wrists, the skin tightening around his, almost enough to break skin, “Minho you’re hurting me.”

“You can’t call for help no matter what!” Minho shouted, tears streaming down his face. 

Trying not to cry himself, Jisung dropped the phone, “Minho look at me, I dropped the phone, I won’t call, I won’t, I promise,” Jisung lowered his voice to a soothing tone, beckoning for the boy to ease the grip on his arms. 

Minho took the phone and threw it across the room, his grip barely loosening around Jisung. 

Using his best soothing voice, Jisung tried to coax Minho from his fit of rage. “Hey Minho, it’s ok I’m not here to hurt you, I came because I was worried. I just want to help you.” The boy’s eyes were still furrowed with rage. “I’m on your side, I promise.” 

At this, Minho’s grip eased off Jisung’s wrists. He slumped down, tucking his head in Jisung’s neck, and lightly cried. He seemed exhausted so Jisung stayed there, laying on the ground holding Minho in his arms, rubbing back and forth over his back and humming to help calm him down. Jisung ran his hand through Minho’s hair then patting it back down against his head. When he looked at his hand he saw a shade deep red lightly coat the tips of his finders. 

“Hey Minho,” Jisung still spoke softly to him, “can you sit up for me?” 

Jisung felt a nod against his skin and the weight of Minho’s head leaving the crook of his neck. When Jisung saw Minho’s face, he saw a small trickle of blood from the top of his head trail down to his ear. Jisung sucked in his breath to prevent himself from commenting on it, knowing well Minho must be aware of it.

“Jisungie, you’re hurt.” Minho said, bringing his hands to hold Jisung’s face, his thumb lightly touching the area where the shard of glass cut him. 

Jisung let out a small laugh, “Min, this is nothing.” Jisung was holding onto Minho’s shoulders when the latter got off of Jisung, standing up and disappearing into another room apart from his. Upon returning, he held a red bag and sat next to Jisung who was now sitting up on the ground. 

Minho took out a small band aid and placed it on Jisung’s cheek right where the cut was. Jisung looked up at Minho who’s eyes were soft, he suddenly felt self conscious as Minho’s eyes traced over Jisung’s face. 

“Here, let me help you with yours,” Jisung said, breaking the silence that hung between them. He shifted to his knees and took the red bag. He found some gauze and bandage wraps. As it turned out there was a bathroom in the other room and so Jisung returned with a cloth to clean Minho’s arm, mainly to rid it of dried blood. Silently, Jisung applied the gauze and wrapped Minho’s arm, trying to be as careful of the tender skin underneath.

Next, Jisung focused his attention to Minho’s head. Combining back the hair with his fingers he dabbed the cloth against the area that blackened with tried blood. Minho always tried to hide his wincing but Jisung could tell when it happened when Minho would tense his shoulders. 

“Minho you can tell me if I’m hurting you, I won’t do it again if it hurts.”

“No I’m fine,” Minho said quietly.

Jisung abandoned the towel and held Minho’s face in his hands, “Minho you know you can voice your opinion, you have feelings too.”

Minho closed his eyes and nodded, “I know, I’m just not used to people listening.”

To say his heart shattered is an understatement, Jisung felt his whole body go numb. Here before him was a boy so defeated that he couldn’t even look him in the eyes. Jisung leaned down and placed a kiss on Minho’s forehead, sweet and gentle. If questioned Jisung would say it was just to comfort the brown haired boy, but that kiss secretly held more meaning than Jisung was even aware of. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi one thing I've gone and changed is Jisung's use of hyung. I removed all the times Jisung has called Minho "hyung" because they aren't at that point yet. I had added "hyung" before I really understood how the term in used in Korean culture. Thank you :)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, if you are reading this it means you've caught up to the latest chapter :) I'm pretty inconsistent with updates only because it's my senior year in HS and school work is a b!tch. However I'm almost always on instagram so feel free to message me there with any question or theories on what you think will happen! See you next time >o<  
> Insta: minhos_left_eyebrow


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